, 


894C 


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THE  WORLD'S 
GREAT  CLASSICS 


•  LIBRAFLY 
COMMITTE 


TIMOTHY  DWIGHT,  D.D.  LLD. 
RICHARD  HENRYSTODDARD 
ARTHVR  RICHMOND  MARSH,  AB. 
»  PAVLVAN  DYKE.D.D. 
ALBERT  ELLERY  BERGH 


•ILLVSTRATED •  WITH- NEARLY  TWO-  ^,1 

'  HVNDRED  •  PHOTOGRAVV&ES  •  ETCH"  \^ 

INGS  COLORED-PLATES  AND- FVLL-  A 

•  PAGE-  PORTRAITS  OF  GREAT- AVTHORS  •  ^ 
CLARENCE  COOK  •  ART  EDITOR. 


THE  COLONIAL  PRE5S 

NEW-YORK  MDCCCXCIX 


,  .  •. 


MARCUS    TULLIUS  CICERO. 

Photogravure  from  the  marble  bust  in  the  Prado  Gallery  at  Madrid. 

This  is  the  most  pleasing  of  all  extant  likenesses  of  the  great  Roman  orator.     It 
•its  Cicero  when  he  was  about  sixty  years  of  age  and  at  the  zenith  of  his. 


goo 


ORATIONS 


MARCUS   TULLIUS   CICERO 


TRANSLATED   BY 

CHARLES   DUKE  YONGE,  A.B. 


WITH  A  SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION   BY 
CHARLES  HERMANN  OHLY,  Ph.D 


REVISED  EDITION 


THE 
COLONIAL 


CornuGKT,  1900, 
Bv  THE  COLONIAL  PRESS. 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  to  the  ancients  we  turn  when  we  seek  to  find  the  founda- 
tions on  which  the  structure  of  modern  civilization  has 
been  reared.  Our  laws  we  trace  to  Rome.  Athens  is  the 
mother  of  art,  both  plastic  and  poetic.  Both  Greece  and  Rome 
have  taught  us  the  science  of  government,  nay,  given  us  gov- 
ernment itself.  And  eloquence,  the  fleeting  utterance  of  the 
tongue,  we  trace  in  its  beginning  and  perfection,  through  the 
channels  of  Rome,  to  Athens,  its  source  and  fountain-head. 

Oratory  was  a  living  power  in  Athens  and  in  Rome.  It  has 
been  a  power  with  all  civilized  peoples.  Its  power  has  always 
been  in  direct  proportion  to  the  eloquence  it  bore.  For,  in  the 
living  speech  lies  that  hidden  charm  by  which  the  emotions  are 
kindled,  that  rouses  to  action,  that  imparts  knowledge.  "  What 
is  there  in  the  world,"  says  Cicero,  "  more  extraordinary  than 
eloquence,  whether  we  consider  the  admiration  of  its  hearers, 
the  reliance  of  those  who  stand  in  need  of  assistance,  or  the 
good-will  it  procures  from  those  whom  it  defends." 

Eloquence,  the  quintessence  of  oratory,  has  ever  been  a  safe 
criterion  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  level  of  a  people,  its  de- 
cay an  indication  of  torpor  and  of  decay  of  the  ideal.  In  Demos- 
thenes culminated  the  eloquence  of  Greece;  in  Cicero  that  of 
Rome.  With  their  disappearance  vanish  the  liberties  of  the 
people  and  self-government  is  effaced.  With  the  institution  of 
free  government  Roman  oratory  developed  and  grew  during  the 
five  hundred  years  that  Rome  was  her  own  mistress.  Before  the 
fall  of  the  Republic,  when  liberty  was  about  to  make  her  last 
struggle,  it  reached  the  summit  of  perfection.  With  the  decline 
of  independence  oratory  declined  in  Rome  as  well  as  in  Greece. 
Eloquence  ceased  to  be  a  weapon  in  public  affairs  and  yielded  its 
gentle  sway  to  force  borne  by  appeal  to  arms.  Rarely  has  ora- 
tory flourished  and  unfolded  its  powers  in  times  of  peace  and 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 

general  prosperity.  It  needs  a  soil  peculiar  to  itself,  from  which 
to  draw  its  vigor  and  an  atmosphere  of  its  own  to  expand  and  to 
develop  its  supreme  powers.  I  '•  >ltncal  ideals  and  the  attainment 
of  high  aims  have  ever  been  its  foster-mother.  Great  issues,  the 
welfare  of  nations,  oppression  of  the  proud  and  generous  reli- 
gious fervor,  each  in  turn  has  tended  to  urge  the  orator  to  impas- 
sioned eloquence.  Turn  to  the  Irish  Parliament  and  its  cham- 
pions for  national  independence;  to  the  French  Revolution  and 
nattainable  ideals;  to  the  great  struggle  in  the  United  States 
to  free  the  slave  from  bondage.  Never  have  the  powers  of  elo- 
quence had  greater  sway,  never  have  they  helped  to  shape 
greater  e\ 

Cicero  is  the  embodiment  of  Roman  eloquence.  None  is 
greater  than  he  save  Demosthenes;  none  of  the  ancients  nearer 
to  us  than  he.  The  more  realistic  a  nation's  conception  of  the 
life  of  the  ancients,  especially  in  their  literature,  the  nearer  has 
it  attained  to  their  standard  of  perfection.  Witness  the  Latin 
races,  witness  England  and  its  intellectual  offspring,  America. 
The  prose  style  of  all  modern  writers  has  been  largely  in- 
fluenced by  Latin  prose,  and,  above  all,  by  the  model  style  of 
Cicero. 

Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  was  born  on  the  third  of  January,  about 
the  year  106  B.C.  He  was  of  noble  birth  and  his  family  had 
possessed  equestrian  rank  from  its  first  admission  to  the 
freedom  of  Rome.  At  an  early  age  he  was  brought  to  Rome. 
Reared  under  the  best  tutors  of  his  time  and  guided  by  a  natural 
tendency  of  his  mind,  he  soon  became  a  zealous  student  of 
philosophy,  jurisprudence  and  its  twin  sister,  eloquence.  He 
grew  into  manhood  under  the  shadow  of  the  outrages  of  civil 
war. 

His  defence  of  Roscius  against  the  favorite  of  Sulla  falls  in 
the  year  81  B.C.  Hortensius  was  his  opponent.  To  triumph 
over  such  a  foe  was  a  triumph  indeed.  A  two-years'  sojourn 
abroad  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  did  much  to  invigorate  his 
body  and  develop  his  mind.  As  quaestor  in  Sicily,  then  in  his 
thirtieth  year,  he  acquired  his  first  experience  in  the  administra- 
tion of  government.  In  the  Senate  Cicero  was  at  this  time 
looked  upon  as  leader  and  champion.  Public  favor  was  be- 
stowed on  him  without  his1  courting  it  by  insidious  arts.  The  ac- 
cusation of  Verres  was  delegated  to  him  after  he  had  been  unani- 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION  v 

mously  elected  ccdilis  cnrnlis  in  69  B.C.  During  his  praetorship 
he  assisted  Pompey  in  securing  the  generalship  in  the  war 
against  Mithridates.  His  election  as  consul,  in  64  B.C.,  marks 
the  climax  of  his  life.  The  defence  of  Rabirius  and  the  prose- 
cution of  Catiline  belong  to  this  period. 

But  stronger  arms  than  his  aspired  to  rule.  Cicero  was  pow- 
erless against  the  combination  of  Crassus,  Caesar  and  Pompey. 
The  entry  of  Publius  Clodius  into  the  triumvirate  drove  him  into 
exile.  To  Pompey's  quarrel  with  Clodius  he  owed  his  recall. 
The  fate  of  Crassus  had  impressed  him  profoundly,  and  we  miss 
in  Cicero  henceforth  that  independence  of  character  that  marked 
his  earlier  years.  Discouraged  from  participating  in  public 
affairs,  he  now  entered  upon  a  period  of  great  literary  activity. 

The  final  struggle  between  Pompey  and  Caesar  was  drawing 
near.  Cicero's  friendship  and  influence,  still  powerful,  were 
sought  by  both,  and,  while  his  heart  inclined  him  to  Pompey,  his 
reason  favored  Caesar.  Nothing,  however,  could  induce  him  to 
abandon  his  seclusion,  till,  after  the  assassination  of  Caesar,  he 
proposed  in  the  Senate  a  general  pardon  for  all  participants  in 
the  struggle,  and  effected  a  superficial  reconciliation  between 
the  opposing  factions.  He  joined  Octavianus  against  Anto- 
nius,  and  with  all  the  power  of  his  eloquence  strove  to  thwart  the 
designs  of  Antonius  to  continue  in  the  role  of  Caesar. 

But  Octavianus  repaid  him  ill.  In  his  new  triumvirate  with 
Antonius  and  Lepidus  all  friends  of  liberty  were  doomed  by  pro- 
scription. Cicero  was  the  first  victim  demanded  from  Octa- 
vianus by  the  implacable  Antonius.  On  the  seventh  day  of  De- 
cember in  the  year  43  B.C.,  he  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of 
C.  Popillius  Laenas,  whose  life  he  had  once  saved.  His  head 
and  right  hand  were  exposed  to  the  populace,  a  spectacle  that 
brought  tears  to  every  eye  in  the  gazing  multitude,  and  exulta- 
tion to  the  hearts  of  sycophants  and  the  enemies  of  liberty. 

It  was  the  conception  and  the  pursuit  of  ideal  beauty  that 
produced  all  the  masterpieces  of  Greek  art.  Cicero  applied  it  to 
eloquence.  He  tells  us  that  he  continually  strove  to  attain  an 
ideal  excellence  not  found  in  any  living  model  nor  taught  in  any 
school ;  and  accords  to  his  Grecian  rival  the  great  praise  of  all 
but  reaching  a  perfection  which  he  had  himself  always  longed 
for  but  had  never  been  able  to  attain.  No  writer  has  ever  made 
so  close  a  scrutiny  of  himself  and  his  art  as  he.  In  "  De  Oratore  " 


ri  SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 

he  points  to  the  variations  of  Thus,  among  others, 

he  gives  reasons  that  aroused  him  to  indignation  :m<l  vcln-m- 
in  I  ngs  again  I  \  « rr«->  ami  <  atiliiK.  and  those  that  in- 

spired him  t.)  insinuating  eloqm-mv  in  >|>eakiiig  <m  the  Manilian 
law.     In  Brutus  IK-  lias  laid  down  all  the  results  of  !  rva- 

tions.  reflect  inns  and  .hat  a  speaker  should  be,  can 

never  be,  yet  must  ever  strive  to  be. 

Cicero  o\\rd  his  great  perfection  in  eloquence  more  to  himself 
and  his  constant  endeavors  than  to  any  other  source.  1 1  is  t  rut- 
he  acknowledges  more  than  once  his  indebtedness  and  gratitude 
to  Isocrates.  Archias,  the  poet,  is  mentioned  as  one  of  his  early 
preceptors.  But  the  genius  of  eloquence  was  born  in  him, 
and,  at  an  early  age,  following  a  natural  inclination  he  resolved 
to  devote  himself  to  oratory.  He  often  saw  and  listened  to  the 
orators  of  his  day.  Crassus,  Antonius,  Caesar,  Sulpicius  and 
Cotta.  In  acquiring  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  law  he  owed 
much  to  the  two  Scaevolas,  the  most  eminent  jurists  of  the  day. 
Again  the  arrival  of  Philo  and  other  learned  Greeks,  in  89  B.C., 
was  an  event  in  the  life  of  Cicero.  Phaedrus  had  already  initi- 
ated him  in  the  study  of  philosophy  and  the  Stoic  Diodolus  in  the 
art  of  dialectics.  Thus  it  was  that,  at  the  threshold  of  manhood 
and  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career,  he  had  attained  to  a  degree 
of  perfection  which  few  have  reached  after  a  long  and  active 
career.  His  sojourn  in  Greece,  his  intercourse  there  with  the 
foremost  minds,  especially  his  associations  with  Appolonius 
Molon,  whom  he  had  known  in  Rome,  offered  an  unusual  op- 
portunity for  self-improvement.  His  early  causes  established 
his  fame  as  an  orator.  Cicero  preferred  to  plead  the  case  of 
the  defendant  and  only  reluctantly  arose  as  public  accuser. 
Content  to  conquer  in  triumphs  won  by  talent,  he  often  pleaded 
causes  without  remuneration.  The  confidence  and  love  of  his 
people,  so  nobly  won,  he  retained  almost  uninterruptedly  till  his 
death. 

In  bringing  his  style  to  an  unparalleled  degree  of  perfection 
Cicero  was  guided  by  Isocrates,  who  had  labored  much  to  shape 
the  language  of  the  Athenians  to  the  purposes  of  the  highest 
eloquence.  It  is  a  long  distance  from  the  harsh  and  clumsy 
style  of  the  old  Romans  to  the  refined  latinity  of  Cicero.  Owing 
to  so  many  points  of  similarity  with  the  Greeks  by  virtue  of  his 
early  training  and  the  course  of  his  studies  in  later  life,  Cicero 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION  vii 

has  often  been  compared  with  Demosthenes.  Quintilian  tells  us 
that  Demosthenes  always  seeks  to  attain  victory  at  the  point  of 
his  weapon,  while  Cicero  employs  the  weight  of  the  weapon 
itself  for  this  purpose,  each  being  perfect  in  his  way.  He  tells 
us  that  Demosthenes  is  concise  while  Cicero  is  flowing  and  re- 
dundant. This  is  the  keynote  to  the  powers  of  each.  Demos- 
thenes, objective,  realistic,  concise,  intensely  earnest,  linking 
himself  to  his  cause,  only  asking  the  good-will  of  his  hearers; 
Cicero  subjective,  redundant,  vejbose,  jesting  at  times,  display- 
ing flash  and  fire,  and  often  sacrificing  form  to  substance  in 
pleading.  Cicero  has  been  reproached  for  his  inordinate 
vanity,  his  glittering  sophisms,  his  self-complacency,  putting 
himself  always  in  the  centre  of  all,  shutting  all  else  out  from  view. 
But  no  assaults  have  been  able  to  dethrone  him  from  that  lofty 
positon  which  the  mature  judgment  of  the  generations  of  twenty 
centuries  has  assigned  to  him.  And  are  we  not  ever  drawn  anew 
to  the  man  as  well  as  to  the  orator  by  the  surpassing  elegance  of 
his  style,  the  urbanity  of  his  manner,  his  skill  and  erudition,  his 
knowledge  of  men  and  of  affairs,  and,  above  all,  by  his  profound 
sympathy  with  mankind?  Future  generations  may  well  re-echo 
the  words  of  John  Quincy  Adams  when  he  said,  "  Cicero  is  the 
friend  of  the  soul,  whom  we  can  never  meet  without  a  gleam  of 
pleasure,  from  whom  we  can  never  part  without  reluctance." 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 5 

SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 21 

THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 37 

FOURTH  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 55 

ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  Lucius  MURENA 69 

ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS  SYLLA 115 

SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS 155 

i 

SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN  LAW 171 

SPEECH  .IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO 201 

SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS 249 

SPEECH  IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS 271 

SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS 285 

SPEECH  IN  BEHALF  OF  KING  DEIOTARUS 303 

THE  FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS 325 

THE  SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS 343 

THE  NINTH  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS 395 

THE  LAST  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS 405 

THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERSES 425 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 


THE  ARGUMENT 

Lucius  Catiline,  a  man  of  noble  extraction,  and  who  had  already 
been  praetor,  had  been  a  competitor  of  Cicero's  for  the  consulship; 
the  next  year  he  again  offered  himself  for  the  office,  practising  such 
excessive  and  open  bribery  that  Cicero  published  a  new  law  against 
it,  with  the  additional  penalty  of  ten  years'  exile;  prohibiting  like- 
wise all  shows  of  gladiators  from  being  exhibited  by  a  candidate 
within  two  years  of  the  time  of  his  suing  for  any  magistracy,  unless 
they  were  ordered  by  the  will  of  a  person  deceased.  Catiline,  who 
knew  this  law  to  be  aimed  chiefly  at  him,  formed  a  design  to  murder 
Cicero  and  some  others  of  the  chief  men  of  the  Senate,  on  the  day 
of  election,  which  was  fixed  for  the  twentieth  of  October.  But  Cicero 
had  information  of  his  plans,  and  laid  them  before  the  Senate,  on 
which  the  election  was  deferred,  that  they  might  have  time  to  de- 
liberate on  an  affair  of  so  much  importance.  The  day  following,  when 
the  Senate  met,  he  charged  Catiline  with  having  entertained  this  de- 
sign, and  Catiline's  behavior  had  been  so  violent,  that  the  Senate 
passed  the  decree  to  which  they  had  occasionally  recourse  in  times  of 
imminent  danger  from  treason  or  sedition:  "  Let  the  consuls  take 
care  that  the  republic  suffers  no  harm."  This  decree  invested  the 
consuls  with  absolute  power,  and  suspended  all  the  ordinary  forms 
of  law,  till  the  danger  was  over.  On  this  Cicero  doubled  his  guards, 
introduced  some  additional  troops  into  the  city,  and  when  the  elec- 
tions came  on,  he  wore  a  breast-plate  under  his  robe  for  his  protec- 
tion; by  which  precaution  he  prevented  Catiline  from  executing  his 
design  of  murdering  him  and  his  competitors  for  the  consulship,  of 
whom  Decius  Junius  Silanus  and  Lucius  Licinius  Murena  were  elected. 

Catiline  was  rendered  desperate  by  this  his  second  defeat,  and  re- 
solved without  farther  delay  to  attempt  the  execution  of  all  his  schemes. 
His  greatest  hopes  lay  in  Sylla's  veteran  soldiers,  whose  cause  he  had 
always  espoused.  They  were  scattered  about  in  the  different  districts 
and  colonies  of  Italy;  but  he  had  actually  enlisted  a  considerable  body 
of  them  in  Etruria,  and  formed  them  into  a  little  army  under  the  com- 
mand of  Manlius,  a  centurion  of  considerable  military  experience,  who 
was  only  waiting  for  his  orders.  He  was  joined  in  his  conspiracy  by 
several  senators  of  profligate  lives  and  desperate  fortunes,  of  whom 
the  chiefs  were  Publius  Cornelius  Lentulus,  Caius  Cethegus,  Publius 
Autronius,  Lucius  Cassius  Longinus,  Marcus  Porcius  Lecca,  Publius 
Sylla,  Servilius  Sylla,  Quintus  Curius,  Lucius  Vargunteius,  Quintus 
Annius,  and  Lucius  Bestia.  These  men  resolved  that  a  general  insur- 

3 


4  CICERO 

.<>n  should  be  raised  throughout  all  Italy;  that  Catiline  should  put 
ill  at  the  head  <>f  the  troops  in  Ktruria;  that  Rome  should  be  §et 
on  fire  in  many  places  at  once;  and  that  a  general  massacre  should 
be  made  of  all  the  Senate,  and  of  all  their  enemies,  of  whom  none 
were  to  be  spared  but  the  sons  of  Pompey,  who  were  to  be  kept  as 
hostages,  and  as  a  check  upon  their  father,  who  was  in  command  in 
the  East.  Lcntulus  was  to  be  president  of  their  councils,  Cassius  was 
to  manage  the  firing  of  the  city,  and  Ccthegus  the  massacre.  But.  as 
the  vigilance  of  Cicero  was  the  greatest  obstacle  to  their  success.  Cati- 
line desired  to  see  him  slain  before  he  left  Rome;  and  two  knights, 
parties  to  the  conspiracy,  undertook  to  visit  him  early  on  pretence  of 
business,  and  to  kill  him  in  his  bed.  The  name  of  one  of  them  was 
Caius  Cornelius. 

Cicero,  however,  had  information  of  all  the  designs  of  the  conspira- 
tors, as  by  the  intrigues  of  a  woman  called  Fulvia,  the  mistress  of 
Curius,  he  had  gained  him  over,  and  received  regularly  from  htm  an 
account  of  all  their  operations.  He  sent  for  some  of  the  chief  men  of 
the  city,  and  informed  them  of  the  plot  against  himself,  and  even  of 
the  names  of  the  knights  who  were  to  come  to  his  house,  and  of  the 
hour  at  which  they  were  to  come.  When  they  did  come  they  found 
the  house  carefully  guarded  and  all  admission  refused  to  them.  He 
was  enabled  also  to  disappoint  an  attempt  made  by  Catiline  to  seize 
on  the  town  of  Praeneste,  which  was  a  very  strong  fortress,  and  would 
have  been  of  great  use  to  him.  The  meeting  of  the  conspirators  had 
taken  place  on  the  evening  of  the  sixth  of  November.  On  the  eighth 
Cicero  summoned  the  Senate  to  meet  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  in  the 
Capitol,  a  place  which  was  only  used  for  this  purpose  on  occasions 
of  great  danger.  (There  had  been  previously  several  debates  on  the 
subject  of  Catiline's  treasons  and  design  of  murdering  Cicero,  and  a 
public  reward  had  actually  been  offered  to  the  first  discoverer  of  the 
plot.  But  Catiline  had  nevertheless  continued  to  dissemble;  had 
offered  to  give  security  for  his  behavior,  and  to  deliver  himself  to  the 
custody  of  anyone  whom  the  Senate  chose  to  name,  even  to  that  of 
Cicero  himself.)  Catiline  had  the  boldness  to  attend  this  meeting, 
and  all  the  Senate,  even  his  own  most  particular  acquaintance,  were 
so  astonished  at  his  impudence  that  none  of  them  would  salute  him; 
the  consular  senators  quitted  that  part  of  the  house  in  which  he  sat, 
and  left  the  bench  empty:  and  Cicero  himself  was  so  provoked  at  his 
audacity,  that,  instead  of  entering  on  any  formal  business,  he  ad- 
dressed himself  directly  to  Catiline  in  the  following  invective. 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 

WHEN,  O  Catiline,  do  you  mean  to  cease  abusing  our  pa- 
tience? How  long  is  that  madness  of  yours  still  to 
mock  us?  When  is  there  to  be  an  end  of  that  un- 
bridled audacity  of  yours,  swaggering  about  as  it  does  now? 
Do  not  the  mighty  guards  placed  on  the  Palatine  Hill — do  not 
the  watches  posted  throughout  the  city — does  not  the  alarm  of 
the  people,  and  the  union  of  all  good  men — does  not  the  precau- 
tion taken  of  assembling  the  Senate  in  this  most  defensible  place 
— do  not  the  looks  and  countenances  of  this  venerable  body  here 
present,  have  any  effect  upon  you?  Do  you  not  feel  that  your 
plans  are  detected?  Do  you  not  see  that  your  conspiracy  is 
already  arrested  and  rendered  powerless  by  the  knowledge  which 
everyone  here  possesses  of  it?  What  is  there  that  you  did  last 
night,  what  the  night  before — where  is  it  that  you  were — who 
was  there  that  you  summoned  to  meet  you — what  design  was 
there  which  was  adopted  by  you,  with  which  you  think  that  any- 
one of  us  is  unacquainted? 

Shame  on  the  age  and  on  its  principles !  The  Senate  is  aware 
of  these  things ;  the  consul  sees  them ;  and  yet  this  man  lives. 
Lives!  ay,  he  comes  even  into  the  Senate.  He  takes  a  part  in 
the  public  deliberations ;  he  is  watching  and  marking  down 
and  checking  off  for  slaughter  every  individual  among  us.  And 
we,  gallant  men  that  we  are,  think  that  we  are  doing  our  duty 
to  the  republic  if  we  keep  out  of  the  way  of  his  frenzied  attacks. 

You  ought,  O  Catiline,  long  ago  to  have  been  led  to  execu- 
tion by  command  of  the  consul.  That  destruction  which  you 
have  been  long  plotting  against  us  ought  to  have  already  fallen 
on  your  own  head. 

What?    Did  not  that  most  illustrious  man,  Publius  Scipio,1 

'This  was  Scipio  Nasica,  who  called        duty  and  save  the  republic;  but  as  he 
on  the  consul  Mucius  Sca-vola  to  do  his        refused  to  put  anyone  to  death  without 


6  CICERO 

the  Pontifi-x  Maximus,  in  his  capacity  of  a  private  citizen,  put 
to  death  Tiberius  Gracchus,  though  but  slightly  undermining 
the  constitution?  And  shall  we,  who  are  the  consuls,  tolerate 
Catiline,  openly  desirous  to  destroy  the  whole  world  with  fire 
and  slaughter?  Fur  I  pass  over  older  instances,  such  as 
how  Caius  Scrvilius  Ahala  with  his  own  hand  slew  Spurius 
Maelius  when  plotting  a  revolution  in  the  state.  There  was — 
there  was  once  such  virtue  in  this  republic,  that  brave  men 
would  repress  mischievous  citizens  with  severer  chastisement 
than  the  most  bitter  enemy.  For  we  have  a  resolution*  of 
the  Senate,  a  formidable  and  authoritative  dn  MM  you, 

O  Catiline;  the  wisdom  of  the  republic  is  not  at  fault,  nor  the 
dignity  of  this  senatorial  body.  We,  we  alone — I  say  it  openly 
— we,  the  consuls,  are  wanting  in  our  duty. 

II.  The  senate  once  passed  a  decree  that  Lucius  Opimius, 
the  consul,  should  take  care  that  the  republic  suffered  no  injury. 
Not  one  night  elapsed.  There  was  put  to  death,  on  some 
mere  suspicion  of  disaffection,  Caius  Gracchus,  a  man  whose 
family  had  borne  the  most  unblemished  reputation  for  many 
generations.  There  were  slain  Marcus  Fulvius,  a  man  of  con- 
sular rank,  and  all  his  children.  By  a  like  decree  of  the  Sen- 
ate the  safety  of  the  republic  was  intrusted  to  Caius  Marius* 
and  Lucius  Valerius,  the  consuls.  Did  not  the  vengeance  of 
the  republic,  did  not  execution  overtake  Lucius  Saturninus,  a 
tribune  of  the  people,  and  Caius  Servilius,  the  praetor,  without 
the  delay  of  one  single  day?  But  we,  for  these  twenty  days, 
have  been  allowing  the  edge  of  the  Senate's  authority  to  grow 
blunt,  as  it  were.  For  we  are  in  possession  of  a  similar  de- 
cree of  the  Senate,  but  we  keep  it  locked  up  in  its  parchment 
— buried,  I  may  say,  in  the  sheath ;  and  according  to  this  de- 
cree you  ought,  O  Catiline,  to  be  put  to  death  this  instant. 
You  live — and  you  live,  not  to  lay  aside,  but  to  persist  in  your 
audacity.  * 

I  wish,  O  conscript  fathers,  to  be  merciful ;  I  wish  not  to 
appear  negligent  amid  such  danger  to  the  state ;  but  I  do  now 

a  trial.  Scipio  called  on  all  the  citizens  empted  the  consuls  from  all  obligation 

to  follow  him,  and  stormed  the  Capitol,  to  attend  to  the  ordinary  forms  of  law, 

which   Gracchus  had  occupied   with   his  and  invested  them  with  absolute  power 

party,   and  slew   many  of  the  partisans  over   the   lives   of   all    the   citizens   who 

of  Gracchus,  and  Gracchus  himself.  were  intriguing  against  the  republic. 

1  This  resolution   was  couched   in  the  *  This  is  the  same  incident  that  is  the 

form    "  Yideant    Consults    nequid    res-  subject  of  the  preceding  oration  in  de- 

publica  detriment!  capiat;"  and   it   ex-  fence  of  Rabirius. 


•w  J  'jjll  pjiniing  b 

at  Romt. 

The  artist  has  chosen  the  moment  when  the  orator  leaps 
•  the  assembled  conscript  fathers,  and  .. 

the  assembly  the  whole  plot  of  the 
las  been  for  weeks  secretly  unravelling.    The  effect 
rophe  is  electrical.    The  Senators  hint:  on  the  wot 
tested  conspirator  cowers  under  the  lash  of  the  spe.i 

v  dramatic,  as,  indeed,  it  represents  one  of  the  most  drat 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  7 

accuse  myself  of  remissness  and  culpable  inactivity.  A  camp 
is  pitched  in  Italy,  at  the  entrance  of  Etruria,  in  hostility  to 
the  republic ;  the  number  of  the  enemy  increases  every  day ; 
and  yet  the  general  of  that  camp,  the  leader  of  those  enemies, 
we  see  within  the  walls — ay,  and  even  in  the  Senate — plan- 
ning every  day  some  internal  injury  to  the  republic.  If,  O 
Catiline,  I  should  now  order  you  to  be  arrested,  to  be  put  to 
death,  I  should,  I  suppose,  have  to  fear  lest  all  good  men  should 
say  that  I  had  acted  tardily,  rather  than  that  anyone  should 
affirm  that  I  acted  cruelly.  But  yet  this,  which  ought  to 
have  been  done  long  since,  I  have  good  reason  for  not  doing 
as  yet;  I  will  put  you  to  death,  then,  when  there  shall  be  not 
one  person  possible  to  be  found  so  wicked,  so  abandoned,  so  like 
yourself,  as  not  to  allow  that  it  has  been  rightly  done.  As  long 
as  one  person  exists  who  can  dare  to  defend  you,  you  shall  live; 
but  you  shall  live  as  you  do  now,  surrounded  by  my  many  and 
trusted  guards,  so  that  you  shall  not  be  able  to  stir  one  finger 
against  the  republic :  many  eyes  and  ears  shall  still  observe  and 
watch  you,  as  they  have  hitherto  done,  though  you  shall  not  per- 
ceive them. 

For  what  is  there,  O  Catiline,  that  you  can  still  expect,  if  night 
is  not  able  to  veil  your  nefarious  meetings  in  darkness,  and  if 
private  houses  cannot  conceal  the  voice  of  your  conspiracy 
within  their  walls — if  everything  is  seen  and  displayed  ?  Change 
your  mind :  trust  me :  forget  the  slaughter  and  conflagration  you 
are  meditating.  You  are  hemmed  in  on  all  sides;  all  your  plans 
are  clearer  than  the  day  to  us;  let  me  remind  you  of  them.  Do 
you  recollect  that  on  the  twenty-first  of  October  I  said  in  the 
Senate,  that  on  a  certain  day,  which  was  to  be  the  twenty-seventh 
of  October,  C.  Manlius,  the  satellite  and  servant  of  your  audacity, 
would  be  in  arms?  Was  I  mistaken,  Catiline,  not  only  in  so  im- 
portant, so  atrocious,  so  incredible  a  fact,  but,  what  is  much  more 
remarkable,  in  the  very  day?  I  said  also  in  the  Senate  that  you 
had  fixed  the  massacre  of  the  nobles  for  the  twenty-eighth  of 
October,  when  many  chief  men  of  the  Senate  had  left  Rome,  not 
so  much  for  the  sake  of  saving  themselves  as  of  checking  your 
designs.  Can  you  deny  that  on  that  very  day  you  were  so 
hemmed  in  by  my  guards  and  my  vigilance,  that  you  were  un- 
able to  stir  one  finger  against  the  republic ;  when  you  said  that 
you  would  be  content  with  the  flight  of  the  rest,  and  the  slaughter 


8  CICERO 

of  us  who  remaim-d?  What?  \\hcn  you  made  sure  that 
would  be  able  to  seize  Praeneste  on  the  first  of  November  by  a 
nocturnal  attack,  did  you  not  find  that  that  colony  was  fortified 
by  my  order,  by  my  garrison,  by  my  watchfulness  and  care? 
You  do  nothing,  you  plan  nothing,  think  of  nothing  which  I  not 
only  do  not  hear,  but  which  I  do  not  see  and  know  every  particu- 
lar of. 

Listen  while  I  speak  of  the  night  before.  You  shall  now  see 
that  I  watch  far  more  actively  for  the  safety  than  you  do  for  the 
destruction  of  the  republic.  I  say  that  you  came  the  night  be- 
fore (I  will  say  nothing  obscurely)  into  the  Scythe-dealers'  street, 
to  the  house  of  Marcus  Lecca;  that  many  of  your  accomplia 
the  same  insanity  and  wickedness  came  there  too.  Do  you  dare 
to  deny  it?  Why  are  you  silent?  I  will  prove  it  if  you  do  deny 
it;  for  I  see  here  in  the  Senate  some  men  who  were  there  with 
you. 

O  ye  immortal  gods,  where  on  earth  are  we?  in  what  city  are 
we  living?  what  constitution  is  ours?  There  are  here — here  in 
our  body,  O  conscript  fathers,  in  this  the  most  holy  and  dignified 
assembly  of  the  whole  world,  men  who  meditate  my  death,  and 
the  death  of  all  of  us,  and  the  destruction  of  this  city,  and  of  the 
whole  world.  I,  the  consul,  see  them;  I  ask  them  their  opinion 
about  the  republic,  and  I  do  not  yet  attack,  even  by  words,  those 
who  ought  to  be  put  to  death  by  the  sword.  You  were,  then,  O 
Catiline,  at  Lecca's  that  night;  you  divided  Italy  into  sections; 
you  settled  where  everyone  was  to  go;  you  fixed  whom  you 
were  to  leave  at  Rome,  whom  you  were  to  take  with  you;  you 
portioned  out  the  divisions  of  the  city  for  conflagration;  you 
undertook  that  you  yourself  would  at  once  leave  the  city,  and 
said  that  there  was  then  only  this  to  delay  you,  that  I  was  still 
alive.  Two  Roman  knights  were  found  to  deliver  you  from  this 
anxiety,  and  to  promise  that  very  night,  before  daybreak,  to  slay 
me  in  my  bed.  All  this  I  knew  almost  before  your  meeting  had 
broken  up.  I  strengthened  and  fortified  my  house  with  a 
stronger  guard;  I  refused  admittance,  when  they  came,  to  those 
whom  you  sent  in  the  morning  to  salute  me,  and  of  whom  I  had 
foretold  to  many  eminent  men  that  they  would  come  to  me  at 
that  time. 

As,  then,  this  is  the  case,  O  Catilirne,  continue  as  you  have 
begun.  Leave  the  city  at  last:  the  gates  are  open;  depart. 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  9 

That  Manlian  camp  of  yours  has  been  waiting  too  long  for  you 
as  its  general.  And  lead  forth  with  you  all  your  friends,  or  at 
least  as  many  as  you  can;  purge  the  city  of  your  presence;  you 
will  deliver  me  from  a  great  fear,  when  there  is  a  wall  between  me 
and  you.  Among  us  you  can  dwell  no  longer — I  will  not  bear  it, 
I  will  not  permit  it,  I  will  not  tolerate  it.  Great  thanks  are  due 
to  the  immortal  gods,  and  to  this  very  Jupiter  Stator,  in  whose 
temple  we  are,  the  most  ancient  protector  of  this  city,  that  we 
have  already  so  often  escaped  so  foul,  so  horrible,  and  so  deadly 
an  enemy  to  the  republic.  But  the  safety  of  the  commonwealth 
must  not  be  too  often  allowed  to  be  risked  on  one  man.  As  long 
as  you,  O  Catiline,  plotted  against  me  while  I  was  the  consul 
elect,  I  defended  myself  not  with  a  public  guard,  but  by  my  own 
private  diligence.  When,  in  the  next  consular  comitia,  you 
wished  to  slay  me  when  I  was  actually  consul,  and  your  competi- 
tors also,  in  the  Campus  Martius,  I  checked  your  nefarious  at- 
tempt by  the  assistance  and  resources  of  my  own  friends,  without 
exciting  any  disturbance  publicly.  In  short,  as  often  as  you  at- 
tacked me,  I  by  myself  opposed  you,  and  that,  too,  though  I  saw 
that  my  ruin  was  connected  with  great  disaster  to  the  republic. 
But  now  you  are  openly  attacking  the  entire  republic. 

You  are  summoning  to  destruction  and  devastation  the  tem- 
ples of  the  immortal  gods,  the  houses  of  the  city,  the  lives  of 
all  the  citizens;  in  short,  all  Italy.  Wherefore,  since  I  do  not 
yet  venture  to  do  that  which  is  the  best  thing,  and  which  belongs 
to  my  office  and  to  the  discipline  of  our  ancestors,  I  will  do  that 
which  is  more  merciful  if  we  regard  its  rigor,  and  more  expedient 
for  the  state.  For  if  I  order  you  to  be  put  to  death,  the  rest  of 
the  conspirators  will  still  remain  in  the  republic;  if,  as  I  have 
long  been  exhorting  you,  you  depart,  your  companions,  these 
worthless  dregs  of  the  republic,  will  be  drawn  off  from  the  city 
too.  What  is  the  matter,  Catiline?  Do  you  hesitate  to  do  that 
when  I  order  you  which  you  were  already  doing  of  your  own  ac- 
cord? The  consul  orders  an  enemy  to  depart  from  the  city. 
Do  you  ask  me,  Are  you  to  go  into  banishment?  I  do  not  order 
it;  but,  if  you  consult  me,  I  advise  it. 

For  what  is  there,  O  Catiline,  that  can  now  afford  you  any 
pleasure  in  this  city?  for  there  is  no  one  in  it,  except  that  band  of 
profligate  conspirators  of  yours,  who  does  not  fear  you — no  one 
who  does  not  hate  you.  What  brand  of  domestic  baseness  is 


io  CICERO 

not  stamped  upon  your  life?    What  disgraceful  circumstam 

iting  to  your  infamy  in  your  private  affairs?  From  what 
licentiousness  have  your  eyes,  from  what  atrocity  have  your 
hands,  from  what  iniquity  has  your  whole  body,  ever  abstained? 
Is  there  one  youth,  when  you  have  once  entangled  him  in  the 
temptations  of  your  corruption,  to  whom  you  have  not  held  out 
a  sword  for  audacious  crime,  or  a  torch  for  licentious  wicked- 
ness? 

What?  when  lately  by  the  death  of  your  former  wife  you  had 
made  your  house  empty  and  ready  for  a  new  bridal,  did  you  not 
even  add  another  incredible  wickedness  to  this  wickedness? 
But  I  pass  that  over,  and  willingly  allow  it  to  be  buried  in  silence, 
that  so  horrible  a  crime  may  not  be  seen  to  have  existed  in  this 
city,  and  not  to  have  been  chastised.  I  pass  over  the  ruin  of 
your  fortune,  which  you  know  is  hanging  over  you  against  the 
ides  of  the  very  next  month;  I  come  to  those  things  which  re- 
late not  to  the  infamy  of  your  private  vices,  not  to  your  domestic 
difficulties  and  baseness,  but  to  the  welfare  of  the  republic  and  to 
the  lives  and  safety  of  us  all. 

Can  the  light  of  this  life,  O  Catiline,  can  the  breath  of  this  at- 
mosphere be  pleasant  to  you,  when  you  know  that  there  is  not 
one  man  of  those  here  present  who  is  ignorant  that  you,  on  the 
last  day  of  the  year,  when  Lepidus  and  Tullus  were  consuls, 
stood  in  the  assembly  armed ;  that  you  had  prepared  your  hand 
for  the  slaughter  of  the  consuls  and  chief  men  of  the  state,  and 
that  no  reason  or  fear  of  yours  hindered  your  crime  and  madness, 
but  the  fortune  of  the  republic?  And  I  say  no  more  of  these 
things,  for  they  are  not  unknown  to  everyone.  How  often  have 
you  endeavored  to  slay  me,  both  as  consul  elect  and  as  actual 
consul?  how  many  shots  of  yours,  so  aimed  that  they  seemed  im- 
possible to  be  escaped,  have  I  avoided  by  some  slight  stooping 
aside,  and  some  dodging,  as  it  were,  of  my  body?  You  at- 
tempt nothing,  you  execute  nothing,  you  devise  nothing  that 
can  be  kept  hid  from  me  at  the  proper  time;  and  yet  you  do  not 
cease  to  attempt  and  to  contrive.  How  often  already  has  that 
dagger  of  yours  been  wrested  from  your  hands?  how  often  has  it 
slipped  through  them  by  some  chance,  and  dropped  down?  and 
yet  you  cannot  any  longer  do  without  it;  and  to  what  sacred 
mysteries  it  is  consecrated  and  devoted  by  you  I  know  not,  that 
you  think  it  necessary  to  plunge  it  in  the  body  of  the  consul. 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  n 

But  now,  what  is  that  life  of  yours  that  you  are  leading?  For 
I  will  speak  to  you  not  so  as  to  seem  influenced  by  the  hatred  I 
ought  to  feel,  but  by  pity,  nothing  of  which  is  due  to  you.  You 
came  a  little  while  ago  into  the  Senate:  in  so  numerous  an  as- 
sembly, who  of  so  many  friends  and  connections  of  yours  saluted 
you?  If  this  in  the  memory  of  man  never  happened  to  any  one 
else,  are  you  waiting  for  insults  by  word  of  mouth,  when  you  are 
overwhelmed  by  the  most  irresistible  condemnation  of  silence? 
Is  it  nothing  that  at  your  arrival  all  those  seats  were  vacated? 
that  all  the  men  of  consular  rank,  who  had  often  been  marked  out 
by  you  for  slaughter,  the  very  moment  you  sat  down,  left  that 
part  of  the  benches  bare  and  vacant?  With  what  feelings  do  you 
think  you  ought  to  bear  this?  On  my  honor,  if  my  slaves  feared 
me  as  all  your  fellow-citizens  fear  you,  I  should  think  I  must 
leave  my  house.  Do  not  you  think  you  should  leave  the  ctiy? 
If  I  saw  that  I  was  even  undeservedly  so  suspected  and  hated  by 
my  fellow-citizens,  I  would  rather  flee  from  their  sight  than  be 
gazed  at  by  the  hostile  eyes  of  everyone.  And  do  you,  who, 
from  the  consciousness  of  your  wickedness,  know  that  the  hatred 
of  all  men  is  just  and  has  been  long  due  to  you,  hesitate  to  avoid 
the  sight  and  presence  of  those  men  whose  minds  and  senses  you 
offend?  If  your  parents  feared  and  hated  you,  and  if  you  could 
by  no  means  pacify  them,  you  would,  I  think,  depart  somewhere 
out  of  their  sight.  Now,  your  country,  which  is  the  common 
parent  of  all  of  us,  hates  and  fears  you,  and  has  no  other  opinion 
of  you,  than  that  you  are  meditating  parricide  in  her  case;  and 
will  you  neither  feel  awe  of  her  authority,  nor  deference  for  her 
judgment,  nor  fear  of  her  power? 

And  she,  O  Catiline,  thus  pleads  with  you,  and  after  a  manner 
silently  speaks  to  you :  There  has  now  for  many  years  been  no 
crime  committed  but  by  you;  no  atrocity  has  taken  place  with- 
out you;  you  alone  unpunished  and  unquestioned  have  mur- 
dered the  citizens,  have  harassed  and  plundered  the  allies;  you 
alone  have  had  power  not  only  to  neglect  all  laws  and  investiga- 
tions, but  to  overthrow  and  break  through  them.  Your  former 
actions,  though  they  ought  not  to  have  been  borne,  yet  I  did 
bear  as  well  as  I  cotrid ;  but  now  that  I  should  be  wholly  occupied 
with  fear  of  you  alone,  that  at  every  sound  I  should  dread  Cati- 
line, that  no  design  should  seem  possible  to  be  entertained 
against  me  which  does  not  proceed  from  your  wickedness,  this  is 


i  a  CICERO 

no  longer  endurable.  Depart,  then,  and  deliver  me  from  this 
fear;  that,  it  it  he  a  just  one,  I  may  not  be  destroyed;  if  an  im- 
aginary one.  that  at  least  I  may  at  last  cease  to  fear. 

I  1  have  said,  your  country  were  thus  to  address  you, 
ought  she  not  to  obtain  her  request,  even  if  she  were  not  able  to 
enforce  it?  What  shall  I  say  of  your  having  given  yourself  into 
custody?  what  of  your  having  said,  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  sus- 
picion, that  you  were  willing  to  dwell  in  the  house  of  Marcus 
Lepidus?  And  when  you  were  not  received  by  him,  you  dared 
even  to  come  to  me,  and  begged  me  to  keep  you  in  my  house; 
and  when  you  had  received  answer  from  me  that  I  could  not 
possibly  be  safe  in  the  same  house  with  you,  when  I  considered 
myself  in  great  danger  as  long  as  we  were  in  the  same  city,  you 
came  to  Ouintus  Metellus,  the  praetor,  and  being  rejected  by 
him,  you  passed  on  to  your  associate,  that  most  excellent  man. 
Marcus  Marcellus.  who  would  be,  I  suppose  you  thought,  most 
diligent  in  guarding  you,  most  sagacious  in  suspecting  you,  and 
most  bold  in  punishing  you ;  but  how  far  can  we  think  that  man 
ought  to  be  from  bonds  and  imprisonment  who  has  already 
judged  himself  deserving  of  being  given  into  custody? 

Since,  then,  this  is  the  case,  do  you  hesitate,  O  Catiline,  if  you 
cannot  remain  here  with  tranquillity,  to  depart  to  some  distant 
land,  and  to  trust  your  life,  saved  from  just  and  deserved  punish- 
ment, to  flight  and  solitude?  Make  a  motion,  say  you,  to  the 
Senate  (for  that  is  what  you  demand),  and  if  this  body  votes  that 
you  ought  to  go  into  banishment,  you  say  that  you  will  obey. 
I  will  not  make  such  a  motion,  it  is  contrary  to  my  principles,  and 
yet  I  will  let  you  see  what  these  men  think  of  you.  Be  gone 
from  the  city,  O  Catiline,  deliver  the  republic  from  fear;  depart 
into  banishment,  if  that  is  the  word  you  are  waiting  for.  What 
now,  O  Catiline?  Do  you  not  perceive,  do  you  not  see  the 
silence  of  these  men?  they  permit  it,  they  say  nothing;  why  wait 
you  for  the  authority  of  their  words,  when  you  see  their  wishes 
in  their  silence? 

I>nt  had  I  said  the  same  to  this  excellent  young  man,  Publius 
Sextius,  or  to  that  brave  man,  Marcus  Marcellus,  before  this  time 
the  Senate  would  deservedly  have  laid  violent  hands  on  me,  con- 
sul though  I  be,  in  this  very  temple.  But  as  to  you,  Catiline, 
while  they  are  quiet  they  approve,  while  they  permit  me  to  speak 
they  vote,  while  they  are  silent  they  are  loud  and  eloquent.  And 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  13 

not  they  alone,  whose  authority  forsooth  is  dear  to  you,  though 
their  lives  are  unimportant,  but  the  Roman  knights  too,  those 
most  honorable  and  excellent  men,  and  the  other  virtuous  citi- 
zens who  are  now  surrounding  the  Senate,  whose  numbers  you 
could  see,  whose  desires  you  could  know,  and  whose  voices  you 
a  few  minutes  ago  could  hear — ay,  whose  very  hands  and  weap- 
ons I  have  for  some  time  been  scarcely  able  to  keep  off  from  you; 
but  those,  too,  I  will  easily  bring  to  attend  you  to  the  gates  if  you 
leave  these  places  you  have  been  long  desiring  to  lay  waste. 

And  yet,  why  am  I  speaking  ?  that  anything  may  change  your 
purpose?  that  you  may  ever  amend  your  life?  that  you  may  medi- 
tate flight  or  think  of  voluntary  banishment?  I  wish  the  gods 
may  give  you  such  a  mind;  though  I  see,  if  alarmed  at  my  words 
you  bring  your  mind  to  go  into  banishment,  what  a  storm  of 
unpopularity  hangs  over  me,  if  not  at  present,  while  the  mem- 
ory of  your  wickedness  is  fresh,  at  all  events  hereafter.  But  it 
is  worth  while  to  incur  that,  as  long  as  that  is  but  a  private  mis- 
fortune of  my  own,  and  is  unconnected  with  the  dangers  of  the 
republic.  But  we  cannot  expect  that  you  should  be  concerned 
at  your  own  vices,  that  you  should  fear  the  penalties  of  the  laws, 
or  that  you  should  yield  to  the  necessities  of  the  republic,  for 
you  are  not,  O  Catiline,  one  whom  either  shame  can  recall  from 
infamy,  or  fear  from  danger,  or  reason  from  madness. 

Wherefore,  as  I  have  said  before,  go  forth,  and  if  you  wish 
to  make  me,  your  enemy  as  you  call  me,  unpopular,  go  straight 
into  banishment.  I  shall  scarcely  be  able  to  endure  all  that 
will  be  said  if  you  do  so ;  I  shall  scarcely  be  able  to  support  my 
load  of  unpopularity  if  you  do  go  into  banishment  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  consul;  but  if  you  wish  to  serve  my  credit  and 
reputation,  go  forth  with  your  ill-omened  band  of  profligates; 
betake  yourself  to  Manlius,  rouse  up  the  abandoned  citizens, 
separate  yourself  from  the  good  ones,  wage  war  against  your 
country,  exult  in  your  impious  banditti,  so  that  you  may  not 
seem  to  have  been  driven  out  by  me  and  gone  to  strangers,  but 
to  have  gone  invited  to  your  own  friends. 

Though  why  should  I  invite  you,  by  whom  I  know  men  have 
been  already  sent  on  to  wait  in  arms  for  you  at  the  forum  Aure- 
lium;  who  I  know  has  fixed  and  agreed  with  Manlius  upon  a 
settled  day;  by  whom  I  know  that  that  silver  eagle,  which  I 
trust  will  be  ruinous  and  fatal  to  you  and  to  all  your  friends,  and 


,4  CICERO 

to  which  there  was  set  up  in  your  house  a  shrine  as  it  were  of 
your  crimes,  has  been  already  sent  forward.  Need  I  fear  that 
you  can  long  do  without  that  which  you  used  to  worship  when 
going  out  to  murder,  and  from  whose  altars  you  have  often 
transferred  your  impious  hand  to  the  slaughter  of  citizen 

You  will  go  at  last  where  your  unbridled  and  mad  desire  has 
been  long  hurrying  you.  And  this  causes  you  no  grief,  but  an 
incredible  pleasure.  Nature  has  formed  you,  desire  has  tra; 
you,  fortune  has  preserved  you  for  this  insanity.  Not  only  did 
you  never  desire  quiet,  but  you  never  even  desired  any  war  but 
a  criminal  one;  you  have  collected  a  band  of  profligates  and 
worthless  men,  abandoned  not  only  by  all  fortune  but  even  by 
hope. 

Then  what  happiness  will  you  enjoy!  with  what  delight  will 
you  exult!  in  what  pleasure  will  you  revel!  when  in  so  numerous 
a  body  of  friends,  you  neither  hear  nor  see  one  good  man.  All 
the  toils  you  have  gone  through  have  always  pointed  to  this  sort 
of  life;  your  lying  on  the  ground  not  merely  to  lie  in  wait  to 
gratify  your  unclean  desires,  but  even  to  accomplish  crimes; 
your  vigilance,  not  only  when  plotting  against  the  sleep  of  hus- 
bands, but  also  against  the  goods  of  your  murdered  victims, 
have  all  been  preparations  for  this.  Now  you  have  an  opportu- 
nity of  displaying  your  splendid  endurance  of  hunger,  of  cold, 
of  want  of  everything;  by  which  in  a  short  time  you  will  find 
yourself  worn  out.  All  this  I  effected  when  I  procured  your 
rejection  from  the  consulship,  that  you  should  be  reduced  to 
make  attempts  on  your  country  as  an  exile,  instead  of  being 
able  to  distress  it  as  consul,  and  that  that  which  had  been 
wickedly  undertaken  by  you  should  be  called  piracy  rather  than 
war. 

Now  that  I  may  remove  and  avert,  O  conscript  fathers,  any 
in  the  least  reasonable  complaint  from  myself,  listen,  I  beseech 
you,  carefully  to  what  I  say,  and  lay  it  up  in  your  inmost  hearts 
and  minds.  In  truth,  if  my  country,  which  is  far  dearer  to  me 
than  my  life — if  all  Italy — if  the  whole  republic  were  to  address 
me,  "  Marcus  Tullius,  what  are  you  doing?  will  you  permit  that 
man  to  depart  whom  you  have  ascertained  to  be  an  enemy? 
whom  you  see  ready  to  become  the  general  of  the  war?  whom 
you  know  to  be  expected  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy  as  their 
chief,  the  author  of  all  this  wickedness,  the  head  of  the  con- 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  15 

spiracy,  the  instigator  of  the  slaves  and  abandoned  citizens,  so 
that  he  shall  seem  not  driven  out  of  the  city  by  you,  but  let  loose 
by  you  against  the  city?  Will  you  not  order  him  to  be  thrown 
into  prison,  to  be  hurried  off  to  execution,  to  be  put  to  death 
with  the  most  prompt  severity?  What  hinders  you?  is  it  the 
customs  of  our  ancestors?  But  even  private  men  have  often 
in  this  republic  slain  mischievous  citizens.  Is  it  the  laws  which 
have  been  passed  about  the  punishment  of  Roman  citizens? 
But  in  this  city  those  who  have  rebelled  against  the  republic 
have  never  had  the  rights  of  citizens.  Do  you  fear  odium  with 
posterity?  You  are  showing  fine  gratitude  to  the  Roman  peo- 
ple which  has  raised  you,  a  man  known  only  by  your  own 
actions,  of  no  ancestral  renown,  through  all  the  degrees  of  honor 
at  so  early  an  age  to  the  very  highest  office,  if  from  fear  of 
unpopularity  or  of  any  danger  you  neglect  the  safety  of  your 
fellow-citizens.  But  if  you  have  a  fear  of  unpopularity,  is  that 
arising  from  the  imputation  of  vigor  and  boldness,  or  that  aris- 
ing from  that  of  inactivity  and  indecision  most  to  be  feared? 
When  Italy  is  laid  waste  by  war,  when  cities  are  attacked  and 
houses  in  flames,  do  you  not  think  that  you  will  be  then  con- 
sumed by  a  perfect  conflagration  of  hatred?" 

To  this  holy  address  of  the  republic,  and  to  the  feelings  of 
those  men  who  entertain  the  same  opinion,  I  will  make  this 
short  answer:  If,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  thought  it  best  that 
Catiline  should  be  punished  with  death,  I  would  not  have  given 
the  space  of  one  hour  to  this  gladiator  to  live  in.  If,  forsooth, 
those  excellent  men  and  most  illustrious  cities  not  only  did  not 
pollute  themselves,  but  even  glorified  themselves  by  the  blood 
of  Saturninus,  and  the  Gracchi,  and  Flaccus,  and  many  others  of 
old  time,  surely  I  had  no  cause  to  fear  lest  for  slaying  this  par- 
ricidal murderer  of  the  citizens  any  unpopularity  should  accrue 
to  me  with  posterity.  And  if  it  did  threaten  me  to  ever  so  great 
a  degree,  yet  I  have  always  been  of  the  disposition  to  think  un- 
popularity earned  by  virtue  and  glory,  not  unpopularity. 

Though  there  are  some  men  in  this  body  who  either  do  not 
see  what  threatens,  or  dissemble  what  they  do  see;  who  have  fed 
the  hope  of  Catiline  by  mild  sentiments,  and  have  strengthned 
the  rising  conspiracy  by  not  believing  it;  influenced  by  whose 
authority  many,  and  they  not  wicked,  but  only  ignorant,  if  I  pun- 
ished him,  would  say  that  I  had  acted  cruelly  and  tyrannically. 


16  CICERO 

Hut  I  know  that  if  he  arrives  .imp  of  Manlius  to  which 

he  is  going,  there  will  be  no  one  so  .-tupid  as  not  to  see  that  there 
has  been  a  conspiracy,  no  one  so  hardened  as  not  to  confer 
But  if  tins  man  alone  \\en-  \<\\[  to  death,  I  know  that  this  disease 
of  the  republic  would  be  only  checked  for  a  while,  not  eradicated 
forever.  But  if  he  banislu •>  himself,  aud  takes  with  him  all  his 
friends,  and  collects  at  one  point  all  the  ruined  men  from  every 
quarter,  then  not  only  will  this  full-grown  plague  of  the  republic 
be  extinguished  and  eradicated,  but  also  the  root  and  seed  of  all 
future  evils. 

We  have  now  for  a  long  time,  O  conscript  fathers,  lived 
among  these  dangers  and  machinations  of  conspiracy;  l.ut 
somehow  or  other,  the  ripeness  of  all  wickedness,  and  of  this 
long-standing  madness  and  audacity,  has  come  to  a  head  at  the 
time  of  my  consulship.  But  if  this  man  alone  is  removed  from 
this  piratical  crew,  we  may  appear,  perhaps,  for  a  short  time  re- 
lieved from  fear  and  anxiety,  but  the  danger  will  settle  down  and 
lie  hid  in  the  veins  and  bowels  of  the  republic.  As  it  often  hap- 
pens that  men  afflicted  with  a  severe  disease,  when  they  are 
torturd  with  heat  and  fever,  if  they  drink  cold  water,  seem  at 
first  to  be  relieved,  but  afterward  suffer  more  and  more  severely; 
so  this  disease  which  is  in  the  republic,  if  relieved  by  the  punish- 
ment of  this  man,  will  only  get  worse  and  worse,  as  the  rest  will 
be  still  alive. 

Wherefore,  O  conscript  fathers,  let  the  worthless  begone — 
let  them  separate  themselves  from  the  good — let  them  collect  in 
one  place — let  them,  as  I  have  often  said  before,  be  separated 
from  us  by  a  wall ;  let  them  cease  to  plot  against  the  consul  in 
his  own  house — to  surround  the  tribunal  of  the  city  praetor — to 
besiege  the  senate-house  with  swords — to  prepare  brands  and 
torches  to  burn  the  city;  let,  it,  in  short,  be  written  on  the  brow 
of  every  citizen,  what  are  his  sentiments  about  the  republic.  I 
promise  you  this,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  there  shall  be  so 
much  diligence  in  us  the  consuls,  so  much  authority  in  you,  so 
much  virtue  in  the  Roman  knights,  so  much  unanimity  in  all 
good  men,  that  you  shall  see  everything  made  plain  and  mani- 
fest by  the  departure  of  Catiline — everything  checked  and  pun- 
ished. 

With  these  omens,  O  Catiline,  begone  to  your  impious  and 
nefarious  war,  to  the  great  safety  of  the  republic,  to  your  own 


FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE  17 

misfortune  and  injury,  and  to  the  destruction  of  those  who  have 
joined  themselves  to  you  in  every  wickedness  and  atrocity. 
Then  do  you,  O  Jupiter,  who  were  consecrated  by  Romulus 
with  the  same  auspices  as  this  city,  whom  we  rightly  call  the 
stay  of  this  city  and  empire,  repel  this  man  and  his  companions 
from  your  altars  and  from  the  other  temples — from  the  houses 
and  walls  of  the  city — from  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  all  the  citi- 
zens; and  overwhelm  all  the  enemies  of  good  men,  the  foes  of 
the  republic,  the  robbers  of  Italy,  men  bound  together  by  a 
treaty  and  infamous  alliance  of  crimes,  dead  and  alive,  with  eter- 
nal punishments. 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   CATILINE 


THE   ARGUMENT 

Catiline  did  not  venture  to  make  any  reply  to  the  former  speech, 
but  he  begged  the  Senate  not  to  be  too  hasty  in  believing  everything 
which  was  said  to  his  prejudice  by  one  who  had  always  been  his  enemy, 
as  Cicero  had;  and  alleged  his  high  birth,  and  the  stake  which  he  had 
in  the  prosperity  of  the  commonwealth,  as  arguments  to  make  it  ap- 
pear improbable  that  he  should  seek  to  injure  it;  and  called  Cicero  a 
stranger,  and  a  new  inhabitant  of  Rome.  But  the  Senate  interrupted 
him  with  a  general  outcry,  calling  him  traitor  and  parricide.  Upon 
which,  being  rendered  furious  and  desperate,  he  declared  aloud  what 
he  had  before  said  to  Cato,  that  since  he  was  circumvented  and  driven 
headlong  by  his  enemies,  he  would  quench  the  flame  which  his  enemies 
were  kindling  around  him  in  the  common  ruin.  And  so  he  rushed  out 
of  the  temple.  On  his  arrival  at  his  own  house  he  held  a  brief  con- 
ference with  the  other  conspirators,  in  which  it  was  resolved  that  he 
should  go  at  once  to  the  camp  of  Manlius,  and  return  as  speedily  as  he 
could  at  the  head  of  the  army  which  was  there  awaiting  him.  Accord- 
ingly, that  night  he  left  Rome  with  a  small  retinue,  and  made  the  best 
of  his  way  toward  Etruria.  His  friends  gave  out  that  he  had  gone 
into  voluntary  banishment  at  Marseilles,  and  spread  that  report  through 
the  city  the  next  morning,  in  order  to  excite  odium  against  Cicero, 
as  having  driven  him  out  without  any  trial  or  proof  of  his  guilt.  But 
Cicero  was  aware  of  his  motions,  and  knew  that  he  had  previously  sent 
a  quantity  of  arms,  and  military  ensigns,  and  especially  a  silver  eagle 
which  he  had  been  used  to  keep  in  his  own  house  with  a  superstitious 
reverence,  because  it  had  been  used  by  the  great  Marius  in  his  expedi- 
tion against  the  Cimbri.  However,  he  thought  it  desirable  to  counter- 
act the  story  of  his  having  gone  into  exile,  and  therefore  summoned 
the  people  into  the  forum,  and  made  them  the  following  speech. 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 

AT  length,  O  Romans,  we  have  dismissed  from  the  city,  or 
driven  out,  or,  when  he  was  departing  of  his  own  ac- 
cord, we  have  pursued  with  words,  Lucius  Catiline,  mad 
with  audacity,  breathing  wickedness,  impiously  planning  mis- 
chief to  his  country,  threatening  fire  and  sword  to  you  and  to 
this  city.  He  is  gone,  he  has  departed,  he  has  disappeared,  he 
has  rushed  out.  No  injury  will  now  be  prepared  against  these 
walls  within  the  walls  themselves  by  that  monster  and  prodigy 
of  wickedness.  And  we  have,  without  controversy,  defeated 
him,  the  sole  general  of  this  domestic  war.  For  now  that  dag- 
ger will  no  longer  hover  about  our  sides;  we  shall  not  be  afraid 
in  the  campus,  in  the  forum,  in  the  senate-house — ay,  and  within 
our  own  private  walls.  He  was  moved  from  his  place  when  he 
was  driven  from  the  city.  Now  we  shall  openly  carry  on  a 
regular  war  with  an  enemy  without  hinderance.  Beyond  all 
question  we  ruin  the  man;  we  have  defeated  him  splendidly 
when  we  have  driven  him  from  secret  treachery*  into  open  war- 
fare. But  that  he  has  not  taken  with  him  his  sword  red  with 
blood  as  he  intended — that  he  has  left  us  alive — that  we  wrested 
the  weapon  from  his  hands — that  he  has  left  the  citizens  safe  and 
the  city  standing,  what  great  and  overwhelming  grief  must  you 
think  that  this  is  to  him!  Now  he  lies  prostrate,  O  Romans, 
and  feels  himself  stricken  down  and  abject,  and  often  casts  back 
his  eyes  toward  this  city,  which  he  mourns  over  as  snatched 
from  his  jaws,  but  which  seems  to  me  to  rejoice  at  having 
vomited  forth  such  a  pest,  and  cast  it  out  of  doors. 

But  if  there  be  anyone  of  that  disposition  which  all  men 
should  have,  who  yet  blames  me  greatly  for  the  very  thing  in 
which  my  speech  exults  and  triumphs — namely,  that  I  did  not 
arrest  so  capital  mortal  an  enemy  rather  than  let  him  go — that  is 
not  my  fault,  O  citizens,  but  the  fault  of  the  times.  Lucius 
Catiline  ought  to  have  been  visited  with  the  severest  punish- 

21 


ia  CICERO 

merit,  and  to  have  been  put  to  death  long  since;  and  both  the 
customs  of  our  anceM  :  -.  an<l  tin  rigor  of  my  office,  and  the 
republic,  demanded  this  of  me;  but  how  many,  think  you,  were 
there  who  did  not  believe  what  I  reported?  how  many  who  out 
of  stupidity  did  not  think  so?  how  many  who  even  defended 
him?  how  many  who,  out  of  their  own  depravity,  favored  him? 
If,  in  truth,  I  had  thought  that,  if  he  were  removed,  all  danger 
would  be  removed  from  you,  I  would  long  since  have  cut  off 
Lucius  Catiline,  had  it  been  at  the  risk,  not  only  of  my  popu- 
larity, but  even  of  my  life. 

But  as  I  saw  that,  since  the  matter  was  not  even  then  proved 
to  all  of  you,  if  I  had  punished  him  with  death,  as  he  had  de- 
served, I  should  be  borne  down  by  unpopularity,  and  so  be  un- 
able to  follow  up  his  accomplices,  I  brought  the  business  on  to 
this  point  that  you  might  be  able  to  combat  openly  when  you 
saw  the  enemy  without  disguise.  But  how  exceedingly  I  think 
this  enemy  to  be  feared  now  that  he  is  out  of  doors,  you  may  see 
from  this — that  I  am  vexed  even  that  he  has  gone  from  the  city 
with  but  a  small  retinue.  I  wish  he  had  taken  with  him  all  his 
forces.  He  has  taken  with  him  Tongillus,  with  whom  he  had 
been  said  to  have  a  criminal  intimacy,  and  Publicius,  and  Muna- 
tius,  whose  debts  contracted  in  taverns  could  cause  no  great  dis- 
quietude to  the  republic.  He  has  left  behind  him  others — you 
all  know  what  men  they  are,  how  overwhelmed  with  debt,  how 
powerful,  how  noble. 

Therefore,  with  our  Gallic  legions,  and  with  the  levies  which 
Quintus  Metellus  has  raised  in  the  Picenian  and  Gallic  territory, 
and  with  these  troops  which  are  every  day  being  got  ready  by 
us.  I  thoroughly  despise  that  army  composed  of  desperate  old 
men,  of  clownish  profligates,  and  uneducated  spendthrifts;  of 
those  who  have  preferred  to  desert  their  bail  rather  than  that 
army,  and  which  will  fall  to  pieces  if  I  show  them  not  the  battle 
array  of  our  army,  but  an  edict  of  the  praetor.  I  wish  he  had 
taken  with  him  those  soldiers  of  his,  whom  I  see  hovering  about 
the  forum,  standing  about  the  senate-house,  even  coming  into 
the  senate,  who  shine  with  ointment,  who  glitter  in  purple;  and 
if  they  remain  here,  remember  that  that  army  is  not  so  much  to 
be  feared  by  us  as  these  men  who  have  deserted  the  army.  And 
they  are  the  more  to  be  feared,  because  they  are  aware  that  I 
know  what  they  are  thinking  of,  and  yet  they  are  not  influnced 
by  it. 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST  CATILINE  23 

I  know  to  whom  Apulia  has  been  allotted,  who  has  Etruria, 
who  the  Picenian  territory,  who  the  Gallic  district,  who  has 
begged  for  himself  the  office  of  spreading  fire  and  sword  by 
night  through  the  city.  They  know  that  all  the  plans  of  the 
preceding  night  are  brought  to  me.  I  laid  them  before  the 
Senate  yesterday.  Catiline  himself  was  alarmed  and  fled.  Why 
do  these  men  wait?  Verily,  they  are  greatly  mistaken  if  they 
think  that  former  lenity  of  mine  will  last  forever. 

What  I  have  been  waiting  for,  that  I  have  gained — namely, 
that  you  should  all  see  that  a  conspiracy  has  been  openly 
formed  against  the  republic;  unless,  indeed,  there  be  anyone 
who  thinks  that  those  who  are  like  Catiline  do  not  agree  with 
Catiline.  There  is  not  any  longer  room  for  lenity;  the  business 
itself  demands  severity.  One  thing,  even  now,  I  will  grant — 
let  them  depart,  let  them  begone.  Let  them  not  suffer  the  un- 
happy Catiline  to  pine  away  for  want  of  them.  I  will  tell  them 
the  road.  He  went  by  the  Aurelian  road.  If  they  make  haste, 
they  will  catch  him  by  the  evening.  O  happy  republic,  if  it  can 
cast  forth  these  dregs  of  the  republic!  Even  now,  when  Catiline 
alone  is  got  rid  of,  the  republic  seems  to  me  relieved  and  re- 
freshed; for  what  evil  or  wickedness  can  be  devised  or  imagined 
which  he  did  not  conceive?  What  prisoner,  what  gladiator, 
what  thief,  what  assassin,  what  parricide,  what  forger  of  wills, 
what  cheat,  what  debauchee,  what  spendthrift,  what  adulterer, 
what  abandoned  woman,  what  corrupter  of  youth,  what  profli- 
gate, what  scoundrel  can  be  found  in  all  Italy,  who  does  not 
avow  that  he  has  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Catiline? 
What  murder  has  been  committed  for  years  without  him? 
What  nefarious  act  of  infamy  that  has  not  been  done  by  him  ? 

But  in  what  other  man  were  there  ever  so  many  allurements 
for  youth  as  in  him,  who  both  indulged  in  infamous  love  for 
others,  and  encouraged  their  infamous  affections  for  himself, 
promising  to  some  enjoyment  of  their  lust,  to  others  the  death 
of  their  parents,  and  not  only  instigating  them  to  iniquity,  but 
even  assisting  them  in  it.  But  now,  how  suddenly  had  he  col- 
lected, not  only  out  of  the  city,  but  even  out  of  the  country,  a 
number  of  abandoned  men?  No  one,  not  only  at  Rome,  but  in 
every  corner  of  Italy,  was  overwhelmed  with  debt  whom  he  did 
not  enlist  in  this  incredible  association  of  wickedness. 

And,  that  you  may  understand  the  diversity  of  his  pursuits, 


M 


CICERO 


and  the  variety  of  his  designs,  there  \\as  no  one  in  any  scho 
gladiators,  at  all  inclined  to  audacity,  who  docs  not  "irn- 

self  to  be  an  intimate  friend  of  Catiline — no  one  on  the  stag- 
all  of  a  fickle  and  worthless  disposition,  who  does  not  profess 
himself  his  companion.     And  IK.  trained  in  the  practice  of  in- 
sult and  \\iekedness,  in  enduring  cold,  and  hunger,  and  t! 
and  watching,  was  called  a  brave  man  by  those  fellows,  while  all 
the  appliances  of  industry  and  instruments  of  virtue  were  de- 
voted to  lust  and  atro< 

But  if  his  companions  follow  him — if  the  infamous  herd  of  des- 
perate men  depart  from  the  city,  ( >  happy  shall  we  be,  fortunate 
will  be  the  republic,  illustrious  will  be  the  renown  of  my  con- 
sulship. For  theirs  is  no  ordinary  insolence — no  common  and 
endurable  audacity.  They  think  of  nothing  but  slaughter,  con- 
flagration, and  rapine.  They  have  dissipated  their  patrimonies, 
they  have  squandered  their  fortunes.  Money  has  long  failed 
them,  and  now  credit  begins  to  fail;  but  the  same  desires  remain 
which  they  had  in  their  time  of  abundance.  But  if  in  their 
drinking  and  gambling  parties  they  were  content  with  feasts 
and  harlots,  they  would  be  in  a  hopeless  state  indeed ;  but  yet 
they  might  be  endured.  But  who  can  bear  this — that  indolent 
men  should  plot  against  the  bravest;  drunkards  against  the 
sober;  men  asleep  against  men  awake;  men  lying  at  feasts,  em- 
bracing abandoned  women,  languid  with  wine,  crammed  with 
food,  crowned  with  chaplets,  reeking  with  ointments,  worn  out 
with  lust,  belch  out  in  their  discourse  the  murder  of  all  good 
men,  and  the  conflagration  of  the  city? 

But  I  am  confident  that  some  fate  is  hanging  over  these  men ; 
and  that  the  punishment  long  since  due  to  their  iniquity,  and 
worrhlessness,  and  wickedness,  and  lust,  is  either  visibly  at  hand 
or  at  least  rapidly  approaching.  And  if  my  consulship  shall 
have  removed,  since  it  cannot  cure  them,  it  will  have  added,  not 
some  brief  span,  but  many  ages  of  existence  to  the  republic. 
For  there  is  no  nation  for  us  to  fear — no  king  who  can  make 
war  on  the  Roman  people.  All  foreign  affairs  are  tranquillized, 
both  by  land  and  sea,  by  the  valor  of  one  man.  Domestic  war 
alone  remains.  The  only  plots  against  us  are  within  our  own 
walls — the  danger  is  within — the  enemy  is  within.  We  must 
war  with  luxury,  with  madness,  with  wickedness.  For  this  war. 
O  citizens,  I  offer  myself  as  the  general.  I  take  on  myself  the 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  25 

enmity  of  profligate  men.  What  can  be  cured,  I  will  cure,  by 
whatever  means  it  may  be  possible.  What  must  be  cut  away,  I 
will  not  suffer  to  spread,  to  the  ruin  of  the  republic.  Let  them 
depart,  or  let  them  stay  quiet ;  or  if  they  remain  in  the  city  and 
in  the  same  disposition  as  at  present,  let  them  expect  what  they 
deserve. 

But  there  are  men,  O  Romans,  who  say  that  Catiline  has  been 
driven  by  me  into  banishment.  But  if  I  could  do  so  by  a  word, 
I  would  drive  out  those  also  who  say  so.  Forsooth,  that  timid, 
that  excessively  bashful  man  could  not  bear  the  voice  of  the 
consul;  as  soon  as  he  was  ordered  to  go  into  banishment,  he 
obeyed,  he  was  quiet.  Yesterday,  when  I  had  been  all  but  mur- 
dered at  my  own  house,  I  convoked  the  Senate  in  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Stator;  I  related  the  whole  affair  to  the  conscript 
fathers;  and  when  Catiline  came  thither,  what  senator  addressed 
him?  who  saluted  him?  who  looked  upon  him  not  so  much  even 
as  an  abandoned  citizen,  as  an  implacable  enemy?  Nay,  the 
chiefs  of  that  body  left  that  part  of  the  benches  to  which  he  came 
naked  and  empty. 

On  this  I,  that  violent  consul,  who  drive  citizens  into  exile  by 
a  word,  asked  of  Catiline  whether  he  had  been  at  the  nocturnal 
meeting  at  Marcus  Lecca's,  or  not ;  when  that  most  audacious 
man,  convicted  by  his  own  conscience,  was  at  first  silent.  I  re- 
lated all  the  other  circumstances;  I  described  what  he  had  done 
that  night,  where  he  had  been,  what  he  had  arranged  for  the 
next  night,  how  the  plan  of  the  whole  war  had  been  laid  down 
by  him.  When  he  hesitated,  when  he  was  convicted,  I  asked 
why  he  hesitated  to  go  whither  he  had  been  long  preparing  to 
go;  when  I  knew  that  arms,  that  the  axes,  the  fasces,  and 
trumpets,  and  military  standards,  and  that  silver  eagle  to  which 
he  had  made  a  shrine  in  his  own  house,  had  been  sent  on,  did  I 
drive  him  into  exile  who  I  knew  had  already  entered  upon  war? 
I  suppose  Manlius,  that  centurion  who  has  pitched  his  camp  in 
the  Faesulan  district,  has  proclaimed  war  against  the  Roman 
people  in  his  own  name;  and  that  camp  is  not  now  waiting  for 
Catiline  as  its  general,  and  he,  driven  forsooth  into  exile,  will  go 
to  Marseilles,  as  they  say,  and  not  to  that  camp. 

O  the  hard  lot  of  those,  not  only  of  those  who  govern,  but 
even  of  those  who  save  the  republic.  Now,  if  Lucius  Catiline, 
hemmed  in  and  rendered  powerless  by  my  counsels,  by  my  toils, 


t6  CICERO 

by  my  dangers,  should  on  a  sudden  become  alarmed,  should 
change  his  designs,  should  desert  his  friends,  should  abandon 
his  design  of  making  war,  should  change  his  path  from  this 
course  of  wickedness  and  war,  and  betake  himself  to  flight  and 
exile,  he  will  not  be  said  to  have  been  deprived  by  me  of  the  a- 
of  his  audacity,  to  have  been  astounded  and  terrified  by  my  dili- 
gence, to  have  been  driven  from  his  hope  and  from  his  enter- 
.  hut,  uncondemned  and  innocent,  to  have  been  driven  into 
banishment  by  the  consul  by  threats  and  violence;  and  there 
will  be  some  who  will  seek  to  have  him  thought  not  worthless 
but  unfortunate,  and  me  considered  not  a  most  active  consul, 
but  a  most  cruel  tyrant.  I  am  not  unwilling,  O  Romans,  to  en- 
dure this  storm  of  false  and  unjust  popularity  as  long  as  the 
danger  of  this  horrible  and  nefarious  war  is  warded  off  from  you. 
Let  him  be  said  to  be  banished  by  me  as  long  as  he  goes  into 
banishment ;  but.  believe  me,  he  will  not  go.  I  will  never  ask  of 
the  immortal  gods,  O  Romans,  for  the  sake  of  lightening  my  own 
unpopularity,  for  you  to  hear  that  Lucius  Catiline  is  leading  an 
army  of  enemies,  and  is  hovering  about  in  arms;  but  yet  in 
three  days  you  will  hear  it.  And  I  much  more  fear  that  it  will 
be  objected  to  me  some  day  or  other  that  I  have  let  him  escape, 
rather  than  that  I  have  banished  him.  But  when  there  are  men 
who  say  he  has  been  banished  because  he  has  gone  away,  what 
would  these  men  say  if  he  had  been  put  to  death? 

Although  those  men  who  keep  saying  that  Catiline  is  going  to 
Marseilles  do  not  complain  of  this  so  much  as  they  fear  it;  for 
there  is  not  one  of  them  so  inclined  to  pity,  as  not  to  prefer  that 
he  should  go  to  Manlius  rather  than  to  Marseilles.  But  he,  if 
he  had  never  before  planned  what  he  is  now  doing,  yet  would 
rather  be  slain  while  living  as  a  bandit,  than  live  as  an  exile;  but 
now,  when  nothing  has  happened  to  him  contrary  to  his  own 
wish  and  design — except,  indeed,  that  he  has  left  Rome  while 
we  are  alive — let  us  wish  rather  that  he  may  go  into  exile  than 
complain  of  it. 

But  why  are  we  speaking  so  long  about  one  enemy;  and 
about  that  enemy  who  now  avows  that  he  is  one;  and  whom  I 
now  do  not  fear,  because,  as  I  have  always  wished,  a  wall  is  be- 
tween us;  and  are  saying  nothing  about  those  who  dissemble, 
who  remain  at  Rome,  who  are  among  us?  Whom,  indeed,  if  it 
were  by  any  means  possible,  I  should  be  anxious  not  so  much  to 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  27 

chastise  as  to  cure,  and  to  make  friendly  to  the  republic;  nor,  if 
they  will  listen  to  me,  do  I  quite  know  why  that  may  not  be. 
For  I  will  tell  you,  O  Romans,  of  what  classes  of  men  those 
forces  are  made  up,  and  then,  if  I  can,  I  will  apply  to  each  the 
medicine  of  my  advice  and  persuasion. 

There  is  one  class  of  them,  who,  with  enormous  debts,  have 
still  greater  possessions,  and  who  can  by  no  means  be  detached 
from  their  affection  to  them.  Of  these  men  the  appearance  is 
most  respectable,  for  they  are  wealthy,  but  their  intention  and 
their  cause  are  most  shameless.  Will  you  be  rich  in  lands,  in 
houses,  in  money,  in  slaves,  in  all  things,  and  yet  hesitate  to 
diminish  your  possessions  to  add  to  your  credit?  What  are  you 
expecting?  War?  What!  in  the  devastation  of  all  things,  do 
you  believe  that  your  own  possessions  will  be  held  sacred?  do 
you  expect  an  abolition  of  debts?  They  are  mistaken  who  ex- 
pect that  from  Catiline.  There  may  be  schedules  made  out, 
owing  to  my  exertions,  but  they  will  be  only  catalogues  of  sale. 
Nor  can  those  who  have  possessions  be  safe  by  any  other  means; 
and  if  they  had  been  willing  to  adopt  this  plan  earlier,  and  not,  as 
is  very  foolish,  to  struggle  on  against  usury  with  the  profits  of 
their  farms,  we  should  have  them  now  richer  and  better  citizens. 
But  I  think  these  men  are  the  least  of  all  to  be  dreaded,  because 
they  can  either  be  persuaded  to  abandon  their  opinions,  or  if 
they  cling  to  them,  they  seem  to  me  more  likely  to  form  wishes 
against  the  republic  than  to  bear  arms  against  it. 

There  is  another  class  of  them,  who,  although  they  are  har- 
assed by  debt,  yet  are  expecting  supreme  power;  they  wish  to 
become  masters.  They  think  that  when  the  republic  is  in  con- 
fusion they  may  gain  those  honors  which  they  despair  of  when 
it  is  in  tranquillity.  And  they  must,  I  think,  be  told  the  same 
as  everyone  else — to  despair  of  obtaining  what  they  are  aiming 
at;  that  in  the  first  place,  I  myself  am  watchful  for,  am  present 
to,  am  providing  for  the  republic.  Besides  that,  there  is  a  high 
spirit  in  the  virtuous  citizens,  great  unanimity,  great  numbers, 
and  also  a  large  body  of  troops.  Above  all  that,  the  immortal 
gods  will  stand  by  and  bring  aid  to  this  invincible  nation,  this 
most  illustrious  empire,  this  most  beautiful  city,  against  such 
wicked  violence.  And  if  they  had  already  got  that  which  they 
with  the  greatest  madness  wish  for,  do  they  think  that  in  the 
ashes  of  the  city  and  blood  of  the  citizens,  which  in  their  wicked 


38 

and  infamous  hearts  thc\  they  will  become  consuls  and 

tlu-tat.  r-,  an<l  rvm  kings?  I1  ot  sec  that  they  arc  wish- 

ing for  that  uliu-h,  if  they  were  to  obtain  it,  must  be  given  up  to 
some  fugitive  slave,  or  to  some  gladiator? 

There  is  a  third  class,  already  touched  by  age,  but  still  vigor- 
ous from  constant  exercise;  of  which  class  is  Manlius  himself, 
whom  Catiline  is  now  succeeding.  These  are  men  of  those 
colonies  which  Sylla  established  at  Faesulae,  which  I  know  to  be 
composed,  on  the  whole,  of  excellent  citizens  and  brave  men; 
but  yet  these  are  colonists,  who,  from  becoming  possessed  of 
unexpected  and  sudden  wealth,  boast  themselves  extravagantly 
and  insolently;  these  men,  while  they  build  like  rich  men,  while 
they  delight  in  farms,  in  litters,  in  vast  families  of  slaves,  in  luxu- 
rious banquets,  have  incurred  such  great  debts,  that,  if  they 
would  be  saved,  they  must  raise  Sylla  from  the  dead;  and  they 
have  even  excited  some  countrymen,  poor  and  needy  men,  to 
entertain  the  same  hopes  of  plunder  as  themselves.  And  all 
these  men,  O  Romans,  I  place  in  the  same  class  of  robbers  and 
banditti.  But,  I  warn  them,  let  them  cease  to  be  mad,  and  to 
think  of  proscriptions  and  dictatorships;  for  such  a  horror  of 
these  times  in  ingrained  into  the  city,  that  not  even  men,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  even  the  very  cattle  would  refuse  to  bear  them 
again. 

There  is  a  fourth  class,  various,  promiscuous,  and  turbulent; 
who  indeed  are  now  overwhelmed;  who  will  never  recover 
themselves;  who,  partly  from  indolence,  partly  from  managing 
their  affairs  badly,  partly  from  extravagance,  are  embarrassed 
by  old  debts;  and  worn  out  with  bail-bonds,  and  judgments, 
and  seizures  of  their  goods,  are  said  to  be  betaking  themselves 
in  numbers  to  that  camp  both  from  the  city  and  the  country. 
These  men  I  think  not  so  much  active  soldiers  as  lazy  insolv- 
ents; who,  if  they  cannot  stand  at  first,  may  fall,  but  fall  so, 
that  not  only  the  city  but  even  their  nearest  neighbors  know 
nothing  of  it.  For  I  do  not  understand  why.  if  they  cannot 
live  with  honor,  they  should  wish  to  die  shamefully;  or  why 
they  think  they  shall  perish  with  less  pain  in  a  crowd,  than  if 
they  perish  by  themselves. 

There  is  a  fifth  class,  of  parricides,  assassins,  in  short  of  all 
infamous  characters,  whom  I  do  not  wish  to  recall  from  Catiline, 
and  indeed  they  cannot  be  separated  from  him.  Let  them 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  29 

perish  in  their  wicked  war,  since  they  are  so  numerous  that  a 
prison  cannot  contain  them. 

There  is  a  last  class,  last  not  only  in  number  but  in  the  sort 
of  men  and  in  their  way  of  life;  the  especial  bodyguard  of 
Catiline,  of  his  levying;  ay,  the  friends  of  his  embraces  and  of 
his  bosom;  whom  you  see  with  carefully  combed  hair,  glossy, 
beardless,  or  with  well-trimmed  beards;  with  tunics  with 
sleeves,  or  reaching  to  the  ankles ;  clothed  with  veils',  not  with 
robes ;  all  the  industry  of  whose  life,  all  the  labor  of  whose 
watchfulness,  is  expended  in  suppers  lasting  till  daybreak. 

In  these  bands  are  all  the  gamblers,  all  the  adulterers,  all  the 
unclean  and  shameless  citizens.  These  boys,  so  witty  and  deli- 
cate, have  learned  not  only  to  love  and  to  be  loved,  not  only  to 
sing  and  to  dance,  but  also  to  brandish  daggers  and  to  admin- 
ister poisons;  and  unless  they  are  driven  out,  unless  they  die, 
even  should  Catiline  die,  I  warn  you  that  the  school  of  Catiline 
would  exist  in  the  republic.  But  what  do  those  wretches  want? 
Are  they  going  to  take  their  wives  with  them  to  the  camp? 
How  can  they  do  without  them,  especially  in  these  nights?  and 
how  will  they  endure  the  Apennines,  and  these  frosts,  and  this 
snow?  unless  they  think  that  they  will  bear  the  winter  more 
easily  because  they  have  been  in  the  habit  of  dancing  naked  at 
their  feasts.  O  war  much  to  be  dreaded,  when  Catiline  is  going 
to  have  his  bodyguard  of  prostitutes! 

Array  now,  O  Romans,  against  these  splendid  troops  of  Cati- 
line, your  guards  and  your  armies;  and  first  of  all  oppose  to 
that  worn-out  and  wounded  gladiator  your  consuls  and  gen- 
erals; then  against  that  banished  and  enfeebled  troop  of  ruined 
men  lead  out  the  flower  and  strength  of  all  Italy;  instantly  the 
cities  of  the  colonies  and  municipalities  will  match  the  rustic 
mounds  of  Catiline;  and  I  will  not  condescend  to  compare  the 
rest  of  your  troops  and  equipments  and  guards  with  the  want 
and  destitution  of  that  highwayman.  But  if,  omitting  all  these 
things  in  which  we  are  rich  and  of  which  he  is  destitute — the 
Senate,  the  Roman  knights,  the  people,  the  city,  the  treasury, 
the  revenues,  all  Italy,  all  the  provinces,  foreign  nations — if,  I 
say,  omitting  all  these  things,  we  choose  to  compare  the  causes 
themselves  which  are  opposed  to  one  another,  we  may  under- 
stand from  that  alone  how  thoroughly  prostrate  they  are.  For 
on  the  one  side  are  fighting  modesty,  on  the  other  wantonness ; 


3o  CICERO 

on  the  one  chastity,  on  the  other  uncleanliness;  on  the  one  hon- 
esty, on  the  other  fraud;  on  the  one  piety,  on  the  other  wicked- 
ness ;  on  the  one  consistency,  on  the  other  insanity ;  on  the  one 
honor,  on  the  other  baseness  ;on  the  one  continence,  on  the 
other  lust ;  in  short,  equity,  temperance,  fortitude,  prudence,  all 
the  virtues  contend  against  iniquity  with  luxury,  against  indo- 
lence, against  rashness,  against  all  the  vices ;  lastly,  abundance 
contends  against  destitution,  good  plans  against  baffled  de- 
signs, wisdom  against  madness,  well-founded  hope  aga 
universal  despair.  In  a  contest  and  war  of  this  sort,  even  if  the 
zeal  of  men  were  to  fail,  will  not  the  immortal  gods  compel  such 
numerous  and  excessive  vices  to  be  defeated  by  these  most 
eminent  virtues? 

And  as  this  is  the  case,  O  Romans,  do  ye,  as  I  have  said  be- 
fore, defend  your  house  with  guards  and  vigilance.  I  have 
taken  care  and  made  arrangements  that  there  shall  be  sufficient 
protection  for  the  city  without  distressing  you  and  without  any 
tumult.  All  the  colonists  and  citizens  of  your  municipal  tor 
being  informed  by  me  of  this  nocturnal  sally  of  Catiline,  will 
easily  defend  their  cities  and  territories;  the  gladiators  which 
he  thought  would  be  his  most  numerous  and  most  trusty  band, 
although  they  are  better  disposed  than  part  of  the  patricians, 
will  be  held  in  check  by  our  power.  Quintus  Metellus,  whom  I, 
making  provision  for  this,  sent  on  to  the  Gallic  and  Picenian 
territory,  will  either  overwhelm  the  man,  or  will  prevent  all  his 
motions  and  attempts;  but  with  respect  to  the  arrangement  of 
all  other  matters,  and  maturing  and  acting  on  our  plans,  we  shall 
consult  the  Senate,  which,  as  you  are  aware,  is  convened. 

Now  once  more  I  wish  those  who  have  remained  in  the  city, 
and  who,  contrary  to  the  safety  of  the  city  and  of  all  of  you,  have 
been  left  in  the  city  by  Catiline,  although  they  are  enemies,  yet 
because  they  were  born  citizens,  to  be  warned  again  and 
again  by  me.  If  my  lenity  has  appeared  to  anyone  too  re- 
miss, it  has  been  only  waiting  that  that  might  break  out  which 
was  lying  hid.  As  to  the  future,  I  cannot  now  forget  that  this 
is  my  country,  that  I  am  the  consul  of  these  citizens;  that  I 
must  either  live  with  them,  or  die  for  them.  There  is  no  guard 
at  the  gate,  no  one  plotting  against  their  path ;  if  anyone  wishes 
to  go,  he  can  provide  for  himself;  but  if  anyone  stirs  in  the  city, 
and  if  I  detect  not  only  any  action,  but  any  attempt  or  design 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  31 

against  the  country,  he  shall  feel  that  there  are  in  this  city  vigi- 
lant consuls,  eminent  magistrates,  a  brave  Senate,  arms,  and 
prisons ;  which  our  ancestors  appointed  as  the  avengers  of  ne- 
farious and  convicted  crimes. 

And  all  this  shall  be  so  done,  O  Romans,  that  affairs  of  the 
greatest  importance  shall  be  transacted  with  the  least  possible 
disturbance;  the  greatest  dangers  shall  be  avoided  without  any 
tumult;  an  internal  civil  war  the  most  cruel  and  terrible  in  the 
memory  of  man,  shall  be  put  an  end  to  by  me  alone  in  the  robe 
of  p  ace  acting  as  general  and  commander-in-chief.  And  this 
I  will  so  arrange,  O  Romans,  that  if  it  can  be  by  any  means  man- 
aged, even  the  most  worthless  man  shall  not  suffer  the  punish- 
ment of  his  crimes  in  this  city.  But  if  the  violence  of  open 
audacity,  if  danger  impending  over  the  republic  drives  me  of 
necessity  from  this  merciful  disposition,  at  all  events  I  will  man- 
age this,  which  seems  scarcely  even  to  be  hoped  for  in  so  great 
and  so  treacherous  a  war,  that  no  good  man  shall  fall,  and  that 
you  may  all  be  saved  by  the  punishment  of  a  few. 

And  I  promise  you  this,  O  Romans,  relying  neither  on  my 
own  prudence,  nor  on  human  counsels,  but  on  many  and  mani- 
fest intimations  of  the  will  of  the  immortal  gods;  under  whose 
guidance  I  first  entertained  this  hope  and  this  opinion;  who 
are  now  defending  their  temples  and  the  houses  of  the  city,  not 
afar  off,  as  they  were  used  to,  from  a  foreign  and  distant  enemy, 
but  here  on  the  spot,  by  their  own  divinity  and  present  help. 
And  you,  O  Romans,  ought  to  pray  to  and  implore  them  to  de- 
fend from  the  nefarious  wickedness  of  abandoned  citizens,  now 
that  all  the  forces  of  all  enemies  are  defeated  by  land  and  sea,  this 
city  which  they  have  ordained  to  be  the  most  beautiful  and  flour- 
ishing of  all  cities. 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST    CATILINE 


THE  ARGUMENT 

While  Cicero  was  addressing  the  preceding  speech  to  the  people,  a 
debate  was  going  on  in  the  Senate  of  which  we  have  no  account.  In 
the  mean  while  Catiline,  after  staying  a  few  days  on  the  road  to  raise 
the  country  as  he  passed  along,  where  his  agents  had  been  previously 
busy  among  the  people,  proceeded  to  Manlius's  camp  with  the  fasces 
and  all  the  ensigns  of  military  command  displayed  before  him.  Upon 
this  news  the  Senate  immediately  declared  him  and  Manlius  public 
enemies;  they  offered  pardon  to  all  his  followers  who  should  return 
to  their  duty  by  a  certain  day;  and  ordered  the  consuls  to  make  new 
levies,  and  that  Antonius  should  follow  Catiline  with  his  army,  and 
Cicero  remain  behind  to  protect  the  city. 

In  the  mean  time  Lentulus,  and  the  other  conspirators  who  remained 
behind,  were  proceeding  with  their  designs.  And  among  other  steps 
they  decided  on  endeavoring  to  tamper  with  some  ambassadors  from 
the  Allobrdges,  who  were  at  that  moment  within  the  city,  as  the  Allo- 
broges  were  supposed  not  to  be  very  well  affected  to  the  Roman  power. 
At  first  these  ambassadors  appear  to  have  willingly  given  ear  to  their 
proposals;  but  after  a  while  they  began  to  consider  the  difficulty  of 
the  business  proposed  to  them,  and  the  danger  which  would  ensue  to 
their  state  if  it  failed  after  they  had  become  implicated  in  it;  and  ac- 
cordingly they  revealed  the  business  to  Quintus  Fabius  Sanga,  the 
patron  of  their  city,  who  communicated  it  to  Cicero.  Cicero  desired 
the  ambassadors  to  continue  to  listen  to  the  proposals  of  the  conspira- 
tors, till  they  had  become  fully  acquainted  with  the  extent  of  the  plot, 
and  till  they  were  able  to  furnish  him  with  full  evidence  against  the 
actors  in  it;  and  by  his  suggestion  they  required  the  conspirators  to 
furnish  them  with  credentials  to  show  to  their  countrymen.  This  was 
thought  reasonable  by  Lentulus  and  his  party,  and  they  accordingly 
appointed  a  man  named  Vulturcius  to  accompany  them,  who  was  to 
introduce  them  to  Catiline  on  their  road,  in  order  to  confirm  the  agree- 
ment, and  to  exchange  pledges  with  him,  and  Lentulus  also  furnished 
them  with  a  letter  to  Catiline  under  his  own  hand  and  seal,  though  not 
signed.  Cicero  being  privately  informed  of  all  these  particulars,  con- 
certed with  the  ambassadors  the  time  and  manner  of  their  leaving  Rome 
by  night,  and  had  them  arrested  on  the  Mulvian  bridge,  about  a  mile 
from  the  city,  with  these  letters  and  papers  in  their  possession.  This 
was  all  done,  and  they  brought  as  prisoners  to  Cicero's  house  early  in 
the  morning. 

Cicero  immediately  summoned  the  Senate;  and  at  the  same  time  he 

35 


36  CICERO 

sent  for  Lcntulus.  Cethegus,  and  others  of  the  conspirators  who  were 
more  especially  implicated,  such  as  Gabinius  and  Statilius,  who  all 
came  immediately  t<>  hi>  house,  being  ignorant  of  the  discovery  that 
had  taken  place.  Being  informed  also  that  a  quantity  of  arms  had  been 
provided  by  Cethegus  for  the  purpose  of  the  conspiracy,  he  orders 
Caius  Sulpicius,  one  of  the  prartors,  to  search  his  house,  and  he  did 
so,  and  found  a  great  number  of  swords  and  daggers  ready  cleaned 
and  fit  for  use. 

Hi  then  proceeds  to  meet  the  Senate  in  the  Temple  of  Concor-1 
the  ambassadors  and  conspirators  in  custody.  He  relates  the  whole 
affair  to  them,  and  introduces  Vulturcius  to  be  examined  before  them. 
Cicero,  by  the  order  of  the  Senate,  promises  him  pardon  and  reward  if 
he  reveals  what  he  knew.  On  which  he  confesses  everything;  tells 
them  that  he  had  letters  from  Lentulus  to  Catiline  to  urge  him  to 
avail  himself  of  the  assistance  of  the  slaves,  and  to  lead  his  army  with 
all  expedition  against  Rome;  in  order,  when  the  city  had  been  set  on 
fire,  and  the  massacre  commenced,  that  he  might  be  able  to  intercept 
and  destroy  those  who  fled. 

Then  the  ambassadors  were  examined,  who  declared  that  they  had 
received  letters  to  the  chief  men  of  their  nation  from  Lentulus,  Cethe- 
gus, and  Statilius;  and  that  they,  and  Lucius  Cassius  also,  begged 
them  to  send  a  body  of  cavalry  into  Italy,  and  that  Lentulus  assured 
them,  from  the  Sibylline  books,  that  he  was  the  third  Cornelius  who 
was  destined  to  reign  at  Rome.  The  letters  were  produced  and  opened. 
On  the  sight  of  them  the  conspirators  respectively  acknowledged  them 
to  be  theirs,  and  Lentulus  was  even  so  conscience-stricken  that  he 
confessed  his  whole  crime. 

The  Senate  passed  a  vote  acknowledging  the  services  of  Cicero  in 
the  most  ample  terms,  and  voted  that  Lentulus  should  be  deposed  from 
his  office  of  praetor,  and,  with  all  the  other  conspirators,  committed  to 
safe  custody.  Cicero,  after  the  Senate  adjourned,  proceeded  to  the 
forum  and  gave  an  account  to  the  people  of  everything  which  had 
passed,  both  in  regard  to  the  steps  that  he  had  taken  to  detect  the  whole 
conspiracy,  and  to  convict  the  conspirators;  and  also  of  what  had 
taken  place  in  the  Senate,  and  of  the  votes  and  resolutions  which  that 
body  had  just  passed. 

While  the  prisoners  were  before  the  Senate  he  had  copies  of  their 
examinations  and  confessions  taken  down,  and  dispersed  through  Italy 
and  all  the  provinces.  This  happened  on  the  third  of  December. 


THIRD  ORATION   AGAINST  CATILINE 

YOU  see  this  day,  O  Romans,  the  republic,  and  all  your 
lives,  your  goods,  your  fortunes,  your  wives  and  chil- 
dren, this  home  of  most  illustrious  empire,  this  most 
fortunate  and  beautiful  city,  by  the  great  love  of  the  immortal 
gods  for  you,  by  my  labors  and  counsels  and  dangers,  snatched 
from  fire  and  sword,  and  almost  from  the  very  jaws  of  fate,  and 
preserved  and  restored  to  you. 

And  if  those  days  on  which  we  are  preserved  are  not  less 
pleasant  to  us,  or  less  illustrious,  than  those  on  which  we  are 
born,  because  the  joy  of  being  saved  is  certain,  the  good  fortune 
of  being  born  uncertain,  and  because  we  are  born  without  feel- 
ing it,  but  we  are  preserved  with  great  delight;  ay,  since  we 
have,  by  our  affection  and  by  our  good  report,  raised  to  the  im- 
mortal gods  that  Romulus  who  built  this  city,  he,  too,  who  has 
preserved  this  city,  built  by  him,  and  embellished  as  you  see  it, 
ought  to  be  held  in  honor  by  you  and  your  posterity ;  for  we 
have  extinguished  flames  which  were  almost  laid  under  and 
placed  around  the  temples  and  shrines,  and  houses  and  walls  of 
the  whole  city;  we  have  turned  the  edge  of  swords  drawn 
against  the  republic,  and  have  turned  aside  their  points  from 
your  throats.  And  since  all  this  has  been  displayed  in  the  Sen- 
ate, and  made  manifest,  and  detected  by  me,  I  will  now  explain 
it  briefly,  that  you,  O  citizens,  that  are  as  yet  ignorant  of  it,  and 
are  in  suspense,  may  be  able  to  see  how  great  the  danger  was, 
how  evident  and  by  what  means  it  was  detected  and  arrested. 
First  of  all,  since  Catiline,  a  few  days  ago,  burst  out  of  the  city, 
when  we  had  left  behind  the  companions  of  his  wickedness,  the 
active  leaders  of  this  infamous  war,  I  have  continually  watched 
and  taken  care,  O  Romans,  of  the  means  by  which  we  might  be 
safe  amid  such  great  and  such  carefully  concealed  treachery. 

Farther,  when  I  drove  Catiline  out  of  the  city  (for  I  do  not 
fear  the  unpopularity  of  this  expression,  when  that  is  more  to 

37 


38  CICERO 

be  feared  that  I  should  be  blamed  because  he  has  departed 
alive),  but  then  when  1  wished  him  to  be  removed,  I  thought 
either  that  the  rest  of  the  band  of  conspirators  would  de; 
with  him,  or  that  they  who  remained  would  be  weak  and  pov 
less  without  him. 

i  I,  as  I  saw  that  those  whom  I  knew  to  be  inflamed  with 
the  greatest  madness  and  wickedness  were  among  us,  and  had 
remained  at  Rome,  spent  all  my  nights  and  days  in  taking  care 
to  know  and  see  what  they  were  doing,  and  what  they  were  con- 
triving; that,  since  what  I  said  would,  from  the  incredible  enor- 
mity of  the  wickedness,  make  less  impression  on  your  eai>.  I 
might  so  detect  the  whole  business  that  you  might  with  all  your 
hearts  provide  for  your  safety,  when  you  saw  the  crime  with 
your  own  eyes.  Therefore,  when  I  found  that  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  Allobroges  had  been  tampered  with  by  Publius 
Lentulus,  for  the  sake  of  exciting  a  Transalpine  war  and  com- 
motion in  Gaul,  and  that  they,  on  their  return  to  Gaul,  had  been 
sent  with  letters  and  messages  to  Catiline  on  the  same  road, 
and  that  Vulturcius  had  been  added  to  them  as  a  companion, 
and  that  he,  too,  had  had  letters  given  him  for  Catiline,  I 
thought  that  an  opportunity  was  given  me  of  contriving  what 
was  most  difficult,  and  which  I  was  always  wishing  the  immor- 
tal gods  might  grant,  that  the  whole  business  might  be  mani- 
festly detected  not  by  me  alone,  but  by  the  Senate  also,  and  by 
you. 

Therefore,  yesterday  I  summoned  Lucius  Flaccus  and  C. 
Pomtinus,  the  praetors,  brave  men  and  well  affected  to  the  re- 
public. I  explained  to  them  the  whole  matter,  and  showed 
them  what  I  wished  to  have  done.  But  they,  full  of  noble  and 
worthy  sentiments  toward  the  republic,  without  hesitation,  and 
without  any  delay,  undertook  the  business,  and  when  it  was 
evening,  went  secretly  to  the  Mulvian  bridge,  and  there  so  dis- 
tributed themselves  in  the  nearest  villas,  that  the  Tiber  and  the 
bridge  was  between  them.  And  they  took  to  the  same  place, 
without  anyone  having  the  least  suspicion  of  it,  many  brave 
men,  and  I  had  sent  many  picked  young  men  of  the  prefecture 
of  Reate,  whose  assistance  I  constantly  employ  in  the  protec- 
tion of  the  republic,  armed  with  swords.  In  the  mean  time, 
about  the  end  of  the  third  watch,  when  the  ambassadors  of  the 
Allobroges,  with  a  great  retinue  and  Vulturcius  with  them, 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  39 

began  to  come  upon  the  Mulvian  bridge,  an  attack  is  made 
upon  them ;  swords  are  drawn  both  by  them  and  by  our  people ; 
the  matter  was  understood  by  the  praetors  alone,  but  was  un- 
known to  the  rest. 

Then,  by  the  intervention  of  Pomtinus  and  Flaccus,  the  fight 
which  had  begun  was  put  an  end  to ;  all  the  letters  which  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  whole  company  are  delivered  to  the  praetors 
with  the  seals  unbroken ;  the  men  themselves  are  arrested  and 
brought  to  me  at  daybreak.  And  I  immediately  summoned 
that  most  worthless  contriver  of  all  this  wickedness,  Gabinius, 
as  yet  suspecting  nothing ;  after  him,  P.  Statilius  is  sent  for,  and 
after  him  Cethegus ;  but  Lentulus  was  a  long  time  in  coming — 
I  suppose,  because,  contrary  to  his  custom,  he  had  been  up  a 
long  time  the  night  before,  writing  letters. 

But  when  those  most  noble  and  excellent  men  of  the  whole 
city,  who,  hearing  of  the  matter,  came  in  crowds  to  me  in  the 
morning,  thought  it  best  for  me  to  open  the  letters  before  I  re- 
lated the  matter  to  the  Senate,  lest,  if  nothing  were  found  in 
them,  so  great  a  disturbance  might  seem  to  have  been  caused 
to  the  state  for  nothing,  I  said  I  would  never  so  act  as  shrink 
from  referring  matter  of  public  danger  to  the  public  council. 
In  truth,  if,  O  Romans,  these  things  which  had  been  reported 
to  me  had  not  been  found  in  them,  yet  I  did  not  think  I  ought, 
in  such  a  crisis  of  the  republic,  to  be  afraid  of  the  imputation 
of  over-diligence.  I  quickly  summoned  a  full  Senate,  as  you 
saw;  and  meantime,  without  any  delay,  by  the  advice  of  the 
Allobroges,  I  sent  Caius  Sulpicius  the  praetor,  a  brave  man,  to 
bring  whatever  arms  he  could  find  in  the  house  of  Cethegus, 
whence  he  did  bring  a  great  number  of  swords  and  daggers. 

I  introduced  Vulturcius  without  the  Gauls.  By  the  com- 
mand of  the  Senate,  I  pledged  him  the  public  faith  for  his 
safety.  I  exhorted  him  fearlessly  to  tell  all  he  knew.  Then, 
when  he  had  scarcely  recovered  himself  from  his  great  alarm, 
he  said:  that  he  had  messages  and  letters  for  Catiline,  from 
Publius  Lentulus,  to  avail  himself  of  the  guard  of  the  slaves, 
and  to  come  toward  the  city  with  his  army  as  quickly  as  possi- 
ble ;  and  that  was  to  be  done  with  the  intention  that,  when  they 
had  set  fire  to  the  city  on  all  sides,  as  it  had  been  arranged  and 
distributed,  and  had  made  a  great  massacre  of  the  citizens,  he 
might  be  at  hand  to  catch  those  who  fled,  and  to  join  himself  to 


40  CICERO 

the  leaders  within  the  city.  But  the  Gauls  being  introduced, 
said  that  an  oath  had  been  administered  to  them,  and  letters 
given  them  by  Publius  Lentulus,  Cethegus,  and  Statilius,  for 
their  nation;  and  that  they  had  been  enjoined  by  them,  and  by 
'Lucius  Cassius,  to  send  cavalry  into  Italy  as  early  as  possible; 
that  infantry  should  not  be  wanting;  and  that  Lentulus  had 
assured  him,  from  the  Sibylline  oracles  and  the  answers  of 
soothsayers,  that  he  was  that  third  Cornelius  to  whom  the  king- 
dom of  sovereignty  over  this  city  was  fated  to  come ;  that  Cinna 
and  Sylla  had  been  before  him ;  and  that  he  had  also  said  that 
was  the  year  destined  to  the  destruction  of  this  city  and  empire, 
being  the  tenth  year  after  the  acquittal  of  the  virgins,  and  the 
twentieth  after  the  burning  of  the  Capitol.  But  they  said  there 
had  been  this  dispute  between  Cethegus  and  the  rest — that 
Lentulus  and  others  thought  it  best  that  the  massacre  should 
take  place  and  the  city  be  burned  at  the  Saturnalia,  but  that 
Cethegus  thought  it  too  long  to  wait. 

And,  not  to  detain  you,  O  Romans,  we  ordered  the  letters  to 
be  brought  forward  which  were  said  to  have  been  given  them 
by  each  of  the  men.  First,  I  showed  his  seal  to  Cethegus ;  he 
recognized  it :  we  cut  the  thread ;  we  read  the  letter.  It  was 
written  with  his  own  hand :  that  he  would  do  for  the  Senate 
and  people  of  the  Allobroges  what  he  had  promised  their  am- 
bassadors :  and  that  he  begged  them  also  to  do  what  their  am- 
bassadors had  arranged.  Then  Cethegus,  who  a  little  before 
had  made  answer  about  the  swords  and  daggers  which  had 
been  found  in  his  house,  and  had  said  that  he  had  always  been 
fond  of  fine  arms,  being  stricken  down  and  dejected  at  the  read- 
ing of  his  letters,  convicted  by  his  own  conscience,  became  sud- 
denly silent.  Statilius,  being  introduced,  owned  his  handwrit- 
ing and  his  seal.  His  letters  were  read, of  nearly  the  same  tenor ; 
he  confessed  it.  Then  I  showed  Lentulus  his  letters,  and  asked 
him  whether  he  recognized  the  seal  ?  He  nodded  assent.  "  But 
it  is,"  said  I,  "  a  well-known  seal — the  likeness  of  your  grand- 
father, a  most  illustrious  man,  who  greatly  loved  his  country 
and  his  fellow-citizens ;  and  it,  even  though  silent,  ought  to  have 
called  you  back  from  such  wickedness." 

Letters  are  read  of  the  same  tenor  to  the  Senate  and  people 
of  the  Allobroges.  I  offered  him  leave,  if  he  wished  to  say  any- 
thing of  these  matters :  and  at  first  he  declined  to  speak ;  but  a 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  4I 

little  afterward,  when  the  whole  examination  had  been  gone 
through  and  concluded,  he  rose.  He  asked  the  Gauls  what  he 
had  had  to  do  with  them  ?  why  they  had  come  to  his  house  ?  and 
he  asked  Vulturcius,  too.  And  when  they  had  answered  him 
briefly  and  steadily,  under  whose  guidance  they  had  come  to 
him,  and  how  often ;  and  when  they  asked  him  whether  he  had 
said  nothing  to  them  about  the  Sibylline  oracles ;  then  he  on  a 
sudden,  mad  with  wickedness,  showed  how  great  was  the  power 
of  conscience ;  for  though  he  might  have  denied  it,  he  suddenly, 
contrary  to  everyone's  expectation,  confessed  it :  so  not  only  did 
his  genius  and  skill  in  oratory,  for  which  he  was  always  emi- 
nent, but  even,  through  the  power  of  his  manifest  and  detected 
wickedness,  that  impudence,  in  which  he  surpassed  all  men, 
and  audacity  deserted  him. 

But  Vulturcius  on  a  sudden  ordered  the  letters  to  be  pro- 
duced and  opened  which  he  said  had  been  given  to  him  for 
Catiline,  by  Lentulus.  And  though  Lentulus  was  greatly  agi- 
tated at  that,  yet  he  acknowledged  his  seal  and  his  handwriting ; 
but  the  letter  was  anonymous,  and  ran  thus:  "  Who  I  am  you 
will  know  from  him  whom  I  have  sent  to  you :  take  care  to  be- 
have like  a  man,  and  consider  to  what  place  you  have  proceeded, 
and  provide  for  what  is  now  necessary  for  you:  take  care  to 
associate  to  yourself  the  assistance  of  everyone,  even  of  the 
powerless."  Then  Gabinius  being  introduced,  when  at  first  he 
had  begun  to  answer  impudently,  at  last  denied  nothing  of  those 
things  which  the  Gauls  alleged  against  him.  And  to  me,  in- 
deed, O  Romans,  though  the  letters,  the  seals,  the  handwriting, 
and  the  confession  of  each  individual  seemed  most  certain  indi- 
cations and  proofs  of  wickedness,  yet  their  color,  their  eyes, 
their  countenance,  their  silence,  appeared  more  certain  still ;  for 
they  stood  so  stupefied,  they  kept  their  eyes  so  fixed  on  the 
ground,  at  times  looking  stealthily  at  one  another,  that  they 
appeared  now  not  so  much  to  be  informed  against  by  others  as 
to  be  informing  against  themselves. 

Having  produced  and  divulged  these  proofs,  O  Romans,  I 
consulted  the  Senate  what  ought  to  be  done  for  the  interests 
of  the  republic.  Vigorous  and  fearless  opinions  were  delivered 
by  the  chief  men,  which  the  Senate  adopted  without  any  vari- 
ety ;  and  since  the  decree  of  the  Senate  is  not  yet  written  out,  I 
will  relate  to  you  from  memory,  O  citizens,  what  the  Senate  has 


4a  CICERO 

decreed.  First  of  all,  a  vote  of  thanks  to  me  is  passed  in  the 
most  honorable  words,  because  the  republic  has  been  delivered 
from  the  greatest  dangers  by  my  valor,  and  wisdom,  and  pru- 
dence. Then  Liu  ins  Flaccus  and  Caius  Pomtinus,  the  prae- 
tors, are  deservedly  and  rightly  praised,  because  I  had  availed 
myself  of  their  brave  and  loyal  assistance.  And  also,  praise  is 
given  to  that  brave  man,  my  colleague,  because  he  had  removed 
from  his  counsels,  and  from  the  counsels  of  the  republic,  those 
who  had  been  accomplices  in  this  conspiracy.  And  they  voted 
that  Publius  Lentulus,  when  he  had  abdicated  the  praetorship, 
should  be  given  into  custody ;  and  also,  that  Caius  Cethegus, 
Lucius  Statilius,  Publius  Gabinius,  who  were  all  present,  should 
be  given  into  custody ;  and  the  same  decree  was  passed  against 
Lucius  Cassius,  who  had  begged  for  himself  the  office  of  burn- 
ing the  city;  against  Marcus  Caparius,  to  whom  it  had  been 
proved  that  Apulia  had  been  allotted  for  the  purpose  of  exciting 
disaffection  among  the  shepherds ;  against  Publius  Furius,  who 
belongs  to  the  colonies  which  Lucius  Sylla  led  to  Faesulae; 
against  Quintus  Manlius  Chilo,  who  was  always  associated  with 
this  man  Furius  in  his  tampering  with  the  Allobroges ;  against 
Publius  Umbrenus,  a  freedman,  by  whom  it  was  proved  that 
the  Gauls  were  originally  brought  to  Gabinius. 

And  the  Senate,  O  citizens,  acted  with  such  lenity,  that,  out  of 
so  great  a  conspiracy,  and  such  a  number  and  multitude  of  do- 
mestic enemies,  it  thought  that  since  the  republic  was  saved,  the 
minds  of  the  rest  might  be  restored  to  a  healthy  state  by  the 
punishment  of  nine  most  abandoned  men.  And  also  a  suppli- 
cation l  was  decreed  in  my  name  (which  is  the  first  time  since 
the  building  of  the  city  that  such  an  honor  has  ever  been  paid 
to  a  man  in  a  civil  capacity),  to  the  immortal  gods,  for  their 
singular  kindness.  And  it  was  decreed  in  these  words,  "  be- 
cause I  had  delivered  the  city  from  conflagration,  the  citizens 
from  massacre,  and  Italy  from  war."  And  if  this  supplication 
be  compared  with  others.  O  citizens,  there  is  this  difference  be- 
tween them — that  all  others  have  been  appointed  because  of  the 

•  A  supplication  was  a  solemn  thanks-  d_ars  which  it  was  to  last  was  proper- 

Riving  to  the  gods,  decreed  bv  the  Sen-  tioned  to  the  importance  of  the  victonr. 

ate.  when  all  the  temple*  were  opened  It  was  generally  regarded  as  a  prelude 

and   the   statue*   of  the   trod*   placed    in  to  a  triumph.    Of  course,  from  what  hat 

public    upon    couche*    (pulvinaria),    to  been    said,    it    must    have    been    usually 

which     the     people     offered     up     their  confined  to  generals;  who  laid  aside  the 

thanksgivings  anH  pravrrs.     It  was  u»u-  toira  on  leaving  the  city  to  assume  the 

a'ly  decreed  on  the  intelligence  arrivine  command  of  the  armv.  and  assumed  the 

of  any  great  victory,  and  the  number  of  paludamentum,  or  military  robe. 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  43 

successes  of  the  republic;  this  one  alone  for  its  preservation. 
And  that  which  was  the  first  thing  to  be  done,  has  been  done 
and  executed ;  for  Publius  Lentulus, though,  being  convicted  by 
proofs  and  by  his  own  confession, by  the  judgment  of  the  Senate 
he  had  lost  not  only  the  rights  of  a  praetor,  but  also  those  of  a 
citizen,  still  resigned  his  office ;  so  that,  though  Caius  Marcius, 
that  most  illustrious  of  men,  had  no  scruples  about  putting  to 
death  Caius  Glaucius  the  praetor,  against  whom  nothing  had 
been  decreed  by  name,  still  we  are  relieved  from  that  scruple  in 
the  case  of  Publius  Lentulus,  who  is  now  a  private  individual. 

Now,  since,  O  citizens,  you  have  the  nefarious  leaders  of  this 
most  wicked  and  dangerous  war  taken  prisoners  and  in  your 
grasp,  you  ought  to  think  that  all  the  resources  of  Catiline — all 
his  hopes  and  all  his  power,  now  that  these  dangers  of  the  city 
are  warded  off,  have  fallen  to  pieces.  And,  indeed,  when  I 
drove  him  from  the  city,  I  foresaw  in  my  mind,  O  citizens,  that 
if  Catiline  were  removed,  I  had  no  cause  to  fear  either  the  drow- 
siness of  Publius  Lentulus,  or  the  fat  of  Lucius  Cassius,  or  the 
mad  rashness  of  Cassius  Cethegus.  He  alone  was  to  be  feared 
of  all  these  men,  and  that  only  as  long  as  he  was  within  the 
walls  of  the  city.  He  knew  everything,  he  had  access  to  every- 
body. He  had  the  skill  and  the  audacity  to  address,  to  tempt, 
and  to  tamper  with  everyone.  He  had  acuteness  suited  to 
crime ;  and  neither  tongue  nor  hand  ever  failed  to  support  that 
acuteness.  Already  he  had  men  he  could  rely  on,  chosen  and 
distributed  for  the  execution  of  all  other  business  ;  and  when  he 
had  ordered  anything  to  be  done,  he  did  not  think  it  was  done 
on  that  account.  There  was  nothing  to  which  he  did  not  per- 
sonally attend  and  see  to — for  which  he  did  not  watch  and  toil. 
He  was  able  to  endure  cold,  thirst,  and  hunger. 

Unless  I  had  driven  this  man,  so  active,  so  ready,  so  auda- 
cious, so  crafty,  so  vigilant  in  wickedness,  so  industrious  in  crim- 
inal exploits,  from  his  plots  within  the  city  to  the  open  warfare 
of  the  camp  (I  will  express  my  honest  opinion,  O  citizens),  I 
should  not  easily  have  removed  from  your  necks  so  vast  a 
weight  of  evil.  He  would  not  have  determined  on  the  Satur- 
nalia2 to  massacre  you — he  would  not  have  announced  the  de- 
struction of  the  republic,  and  even  the  day  of  its  doom  so  long 

1  The  Saturnalia  was  a  feast  of  Saturn  it  took  place  at  the  end  of  December, 
at  which  extraordinary  license  and  in-  while  this  speech  of  Cicero  was  deliv- 
dulgence  were  allowed  to  all  the  slaves;  ered  early  in  November. 


M 


CICERO 


beforehand — he  would  never  have  allowed  his  >eal  and  hi^ 
ters,  the  undeniable  witnesses  of  his  guilt.  i«>  B,  which 

now,  since  he  is  absent,  has  been  so  done  that  no  larceny  in  a 
private  house  has  ever  been  so  thoroughly  and  clearly  detected 
as  this  vast  conspiracy  against  the  republic.  But  if  Catiline 
had  remained  in  the  city  to  this  day,  although,  as  long  as  he  was 
so,  I  met  all  his  designs  and  withstood  them  say  the 

least,  we  should  have  had  to  tight  with  him,  and  should  m 
while  he  remained  an  enemy  in  the  city,  have  delivered  the  re- 
public from  such  dangers,  with  such  ease,  such  tranquillity,  and 
such  silence. 

Although  all  these  things,  O  Romans,  have  been  so  managed 
by  me,  that  they  appear  to  have  been  done  and  provided  for  by 
the  order  and  design  of  the  immortal  gods ;  and  as  we  may  con- 
jecture this  because  the  direction  of  such  weighty  affairs 
scarcely  appears  capable  of  having  been  carried  out  by  human 
wisdom ;  so,  too,  they  have  at  this  time  so  brought  us  present 
aid  and  assistance,  that  we  could  almost  behold  them  without 
eyes.  For  to  say  nothing  of  those  things,  namely,  the  fire- 
brands seen  in  the  west  in  the  night-time,  and  the  heat  of  the 
atmosphere — to  pass  over  the  falling  of  thunder-bolts  and  the 
earthquakes — to  say  nothing  of  all  the  other  portents  which 
have  taken  place  in  such  numbers  during  my  consulship,  that 
the  immortal  gods  themselves  have  been  seeming  to  predict 
what  is  now  taking  place ;  yet,  at  all  events,  this  which  I  am 
about  to  mention,  O  Romans,  must  be  neither  passed  over  nor 
omitted. 

For  you  recollect,  I  suppose,  when  Cotta  and  Torquatus  were 
consuls,  that  many  towers  in  the  Capitol  were  struck  with  light- 
ning, when  both  the  images  of  the  immortal  gods  were  moved, 
and  the  statues  of  many  ancient  men  were  thrown  down,  and 
the  brazen  tablets  on  which  the  laws  were  written  were  melted. 
Even  Romulus,  who  built  this  city,  was  struck,  which,  you 
recollect,  stood  in  the  Capitol,  a  gilt  statue,  little  and  sucking, 
and  clinging  to  the  teats  of  the  wolf.  And  when  at  this  time 
the  soothsayers  were  assembled  out  of  all  Etruria,  they  said  that 
slaughter,  and  conflagration,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  laws, 
and  civil  and  domestic  war,  and  the  fall  of  the  whole  city  and 
empire  was  at  hand,  unless  the  immortal  gods,  being  appeased 
in  every  possible  manner,  by  their  own  power  turned  aside,  as  I 
may  say,  the  very  fates  themselves. 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 


45 


Therefore,  according  to  their  answers,  games  were  celebrated 
for  ten  days,  nor  was  anything  omitted  which  might  tend  to  the 
appeasing  of  the  gods.  And  they  enjoined  also  that  we  should 
make  a  greater  statue  of  Jupiter,  and  place  it  in  a  lofty  situation, 
and  (contrary  to  what  had  been  done  before)  turn  it  toward  the 
east.  And  they  said  that  they  hoped  that  if  that  statue  which 
you  now  beljold  looked  upon  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  the 
forum,  and  the  senate-house,  then  those  designs  which  were 
secretly  formed  against  the  safety  of  the  city  and  empire  would 
be  brought  to  light,  so  as  to  be  able  to  be  thoroughly  seen  by 
the  Senate  and  by  the  Roman  people.  And  the  consuls  ordered 
it  to  be  so  placed ;  but  so  great  was  the  delay  in  the  work,  that  it 
was  never  set  up  by  the  former  consuls,  nor  by  us  before  this 
day. 

Here  who,  O  Romans,  can  there  be  so  obstinate  against  the 
truth,  so  headstrong,  so  void  of  sense,  as  to  deny  that  all  these 
things  which  we  see,  and  especially  this  city,  is  governed  by  the 
divine  authority  and  power  of  the  immortal  gods  ?  Forsooth, 
when  this  answer  had  been  given — that  massacre,  and  confla- 
gration, and  ruin  was  prepared  for  the  republic ;  and  that,  too, 
by  profligate  citizens,  which,  from  the  enormity  of  the  wicked- 
ness, appeared  incredible  to  some  people,  you  found  that  it  had 
not  only  been  planned  by  wicked  citizens,  but  had  even  been 
undertaken  and  commenced.  And  is  not  this  fact  so  present 
that  it  appears  to  have  taken  place  by  the  express  will  of  the 
good  and  mighty  Jupiter,  that,  when  this  day,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, both  the  conspirators  and  their  accusers  were  being  led  by 
my  command  through  the  forum  to  the  Temple  of  Concord,  at 
that  very  time  the  statue  was  being  erected  ?  And  when  it  was 
set  up,  and  turned  toward  you  and  toward  the  Senate,  the  Sen- 
ate and  you  yourselves  saw  everything  which  had  been  planned 
against  the  universal  safety  brought  to  light  and  made  mani- 
fest. 

And  on  this  account  they  deserve  even  greater  hatred  and 
greater  punishment,  for  having  attempted  to  apply  their  fatal 
and  wicked  fire,  not  only  to  your  houses  and  homes,  but  even 
to  the  shrines  and  temples  of  the  gods.  And  if  I  were  to  say 
that  it  was  I  who  resisted  them,  I  should  take  too  much  to  my- 
self, and  ought  not  to  be  borne.  He — he,  Jupiter,  resisted 
them.  He  determined  that  the  Capitol  should  be  safe,  he  saved 


46  CICERO 

these  temples,  he  saved  this  city,  he  saved  all  of  you.  It  is  under 
the  guidance  of  the  immortal  gods,  O  Romans,  that  1  have 
cherished  tin-  intention  and  desire*  which  I  have,  and  have  ar- 
rived at  such  undeniable  proofs.  Surely,  that  tampering  with 
the  Allobroges  would  never  have  taken  place,  so  important  a 
matter  would  never  have  been  so  madly  intrusted,  by  Lentulus 
and  the  rest  of  our  internal  enemies,  to  strangers  and  foreigners, 
such  letters  would  never  have  been  written,  unless  all  prudence 
had  been  taken  by  the  immortal  gods  from  such  terrible  audac- 
ity. What  shall  I  say  ?  That  Gauls,  men  from  a  state  scarcely 
at  peace  with  us,  the  only  nation  existing  which  seems  both  to 
be  able  to  make  war  on  the  Roman  people,  and  not  to  be  un- 
willing to  do  so — that  they  should  disregard  the  hope  of  empire 
and  of  the  greatest  success  voluntarily  offered  to  them  by  patri- 
cians, and  should  prefer  your  safety  to  their  own  power — do  you 
not  think  that  that  was  caused  by  divine  interposition?  espe- 
cially when  they  could  have  destroyed  us,  not  by  fighting,  but 
by  keeping  silence. 

Wherefore,  O  citizens,  since  a  supplication  has  been  decreed 
at  all  the  altars,  celebrate  those  days  with  your  wives  and  chil- 
dren ;  for  many  just  and  deserved  honors  have  been  often  paid 
to  the  immortal  gods,  but  juster  ones  never.  For  you  have 
been  snatched  from  a  most  cruel  and  miserable  destruction, 
and  you  have  been  snatched  from  it  without. slaughter,  without 
bloodshed,  without  an  army,  without  a  battle.  You  have  con- 
quered in  the  garb  of  peace,  with  me  in  the  garb  of  peace  for 
your  only  general  and  commander. 

Remember,  O  citizens,  all  civil  dissensions,  and  not  only 
those  which  you  have  heard  of,  but  those  also  which  you  your- 
selves remember  and  have  seen.  Lucius  Sylla  crushed  Publius 
Sulpicius ; 3  he  drove  from  the  city  Caius  Marius,  the  guardian 
of  this  city ;  and  of  many  other  brave  men  some  he  drove  from 
the  city,  and  some  he  murdered.  Cnaeus  Octavius  the  consul 
drove  his  colleague  by  force  of  arms  out  of  the  city ;  all  this 
place  was  crowded  with  heaps  of  carcasses  and  flowed  with  the 

»  Sulpicius  procured  a  law  to  be  passed  of    Marius,    who    returned    to    Rome, 

for  taking  the  command  against  Mithri-  Lepidus  and   Catulus  were  consuls  the 

dates  from  Sylla  and  giving  it  to  Mariu*;  year  after  the  death  of  Sylla.  and  they 

Sylla  came  to  Rome  with  his  army  and  quarrelled    because    Lepidus    wished    to 

slew    Sulpicius,    when    Marius    fled    to  rescind   all   the  acts  of   Sylla.     Lepidus 

Africa.    Sylla  made  Octavius  and  Cinna  was  defeated,  fled  to  Sardinia,  and  died 

consuls,    who    quarrelled    after    he    was  there, 
gone,  and  Cinna  went  over  to  the  party 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE  47 

blood  of  citizens ;  afterward  Cinna  and  Marius  got  the  upper 
hand ;  and  then  most  illustrious  men  were  put  to  death,  and  the 
lights  of  the  state  were  extinguished.  Afterward  Sylla  avenged 
the  cruelty  of  this  victory;  it  is  needless  to  say  with  what  a 
diminution  of  the  citizens,  and  with  what  disasters  to  the  repub- 
lic. Marcus  Lepidus  disagreed  with  that  most  eminent  and 
brave  man  Quintus  Catulus.  His  death  did  not  cause  as  much 
grief  to  the  republic  as  that  of  the  others. 

And  these  dissensions,  O  Romans,  were  such  as  concerned 
not  the  destruction  of  the  republic,  but  only  a  change  in  the  con- 
stitution. They  did  not  wish  that  there  should  be  no  republic, 
but  that  they  themselves  should  be  the  chief  men  in  that  which 
existed ;  nor  did  they  desire  that  the  city  should  be  burned,  but 
that  they  themselves  should  flourish  in  it.  And  yet  all  those 
dissensions,  none  of  which  aimed  at  the  destruction  of  the  re- 
public, were  such  that  they  were  to  be  terminated  not  by  a 
reconciliation  and  concord,  but  only  by  internecine  war  among 
the  citizens.  But  in  this  war  alone,  the  greatest  and  most  cruel 
in  the  memory  of  man — a  war  such  as  even  the  countries  of  the 
barbarians  have  never  waged  with  their  own  tribes — a  war  in 
which  this  law  was  laid  down  by  Lentulus,  and  Catiline,  and 
Cassius,  and  Cethegus,  that  everyone,  who  could  live  in  safety 
as  long  as  the  city  remained  in  safety,  should  be  considered  as 
an  enemy — in  this  war  I  have  so  managed  matters,  O  Romans, 
that  you  should  all  be  preserved  in  safety ;  and  though  your  ene- 
mies had  thought  that  only  such  a  number  of  the  citizens  would 
be  left  as  had  held  out  against  an  interminable  massacre,  and 
only  so  much  of  the  city  as  the  flames  could  not  devour,  I  have 
preserved  both  the  city  and  the  citizens  unhurt  and  undimin- 
ished. 

And  for  these  exploits,  important  as  they  are,  O  Romans,  I 
ask  from  you  no  reward  of  virtue,  no  badge  of  honor,  no  monu- 
ment of  my  glory,  beyond  the  everlasting  recollection  of  this 
day.  In  your  minds  I  wish  all  my  triumphs,  all  my  decorations 
of  honor,  the  monuments  of  my  glory,  the  badges  of  my  re-, 
nown,  to  be  stored  and  laid  up.  Nothing  voiceless  can  delight 
me,  nothing  silent — nothing,  in  short,  such  as  even  those  who 
are  less  worthy  can  obtain.  In  your  memory,  O  Romans,  my 
name  shall  be  cherished,  in  your  discourses  it  shall  grow,  in  the 
monuments  of  your  letters  it  shall  grow  old  and  strengthen; 


48  CICERO 


'1  that  the  same  «lay  which  I  hope  will  be  for 
everlasting,  will  l>e  remembered  forever,  so  as  t<>  tni'l  l>oth  to 
tin-  .ml  tlu-  recollection  of  my  consulship  ;  and 

that  it  will  IK-  remembered  that  tl  •••<!  in  this  eit\  at  the 

same  time  two  citizens,  one  of  whom  limited  the  boundaries  of 
your  empire  only  by  the  regions  of  heaven,  not  by  those  of  the 
earth,  while  the  other  preserved  the  abode  and  home  of  that 
same  empire. 

Hut  since  the  fortune  and  condition  of  those  exploits  which  I 
have  performed  is  not  the  same  with  that  of  those  men  who 
have  directed  foreign  wars  —  because  I  must  live  among  those 
whom  1  have  defeated  and  subdued,  they  have  left  their  enemies 
either  slain  or  crushed  —  it  is  your  business,  O  Romans,  to  take 
care,  if  their  good  deeds  are  a  benefit  to  others,  that  mine  shall 
never  be  an  injury  to  me.  For  that  the  wicked  and  profligate 
designs  of  audacious  men  shall  not  be  able  to  injure  you,  I  have 
taken  care  ;  it  is  your  business  to  take  care  that  they  do  not  in- 
jure me.  Although,  O  Romans,  no  injury  can  be  done  to  me 
by  them  —  for  there  is  a  great  protection  in  the  affection  of  all 
good  men.  which  is  procured  for  me  forever  ;  there  is  great  dig- 
nity in  the  republic,  which  will  always  silently  defend  me  :  there 
is  great  power  in  conscience,  and  those  who  neglect  it  when 
they  desire  to  attack  me  will  destroy  themselves. 

There  is  moreover  that  disposition  in  me,  O  Romans,  that  I 
not  only  will  yield  to  the  audacity  of  no  one,  but  that  I  always 
voluntarily  attack  the  worthless.  And  if  all  the  violence  of  do- 
mestic enemies  being  warded  off  from  you  turns  itself  upon  me 
alone,  you  will  have  to  take  care,  O  Romans,  in  what  condition 
you  wish  those  men  to  be  for  the  future,  who  for  your  safety 
have  exposed  themselves  to  unpopularity  and  to  all  sorts  of 
dangers.  As  for  me,  myself,  what  is  there  which  now  can  be 
gained  by  me  for  the  enjoyment  of  life,  especially  when  neither 
in  credit  among  you,  nor  in  the  glory  of  virtue,  do  I  see  any 
higher  point  to  which  I  can  be  desirous  to  climb? 

That  indeed  I  will  take  care  of,  O  Romans,  as  a  private  man 
to  uphold  and  embellish  the  exploits  which  I  have  performed 
in  my  consulship  :  so  that,  if  there  has  been  any  unpopularity 
incurred  in  preserving  the  republic,  it  may  injure  those  who 
envy  me,  and  may  tend  to  my  glory.  Lastly,  I  will  so  behave 
myself  in  the  republic  as  always  to  remember  what  I  have  done, 


THIRD  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 


49 


and  to  take  care  that  they  shall  appear  to  have  been  done 
through  virtue,  and  not  by  chance.  Do  you,  O  Romans,  since 
it  is  now  night,  worship  that  Jupiter,  the  guardian  of  this  city 
and  of  yourselves,  and  depart  to  your  homes ;  and  defend  those 
homes,  though  the  danger  is  now  removed,  with  guard  and 
watch  as  you  did  last  night.  That  you  shall  not  have  to  do  so 
long,  and  that  you  shall  enjoy  perpetual  tranquillity,  shall,  O 
Romans,  be  my  care. 


FOURTH    ORATION    AGAINST    CATILINE 


THE  ARGUMENT 

The  night  after  the  events  mentioned  in  the  argument  to  the  preced- 
ing oration,  Cicero's  wife  Terentia,  with  the  vestal  virgins,  was  per- 
forming at  home  the  mystic  rites  of  the  Bona  Dea,  while  Cicero  was 
deliberating  with  his  friends  on  the  best  mode  of  punishing  the  con- 
spirators. Terentia  interrupted  their  deliberations  by  coming  in  to 
inform  them  of  a  prodigy  which  had  just  happened;  that  after  the 
sacrifice  in  which  she  had  been  engaged  was  over,  the  fire  revived 
spontaneously ;  on  which  the  vestal  virgins  had  sent  her  to  him,  to 
inform  him  of  it,  and  to  bid  him  pursue  what  he  was  then  thinking  of 
and  intending  for  the  good  of  his  country,  since  the  goddess  had  given 
this  sign  that  she  was  watching  over  his  safety  and  glory. 

The  next  day  the  Senate  ordered  public  rewards  to  the  ambassadors 
and  to  Vulturcius;  and  showed  signs  of  intending  to  proceed  with 
extreme  rigor  against  the  conspirators;  when,  on  a  sudden,  rumors 
arose  of  plots  having  been  formed  by  the  slaves  of  Lentulus  and  Cethe- 
gus  for  their  masters'  rescue;  which  obliged  Cicero  to  double  all  the 
guards,  and  determined  him  to  prevent  any  repetition  of  such  attempts 
by  bringing  before  the  Senate  without  delay  the  question  of  the  punish- 
ment of  the  prisoners.  On  which  account  he  summoned  the  Senate  to 
meet  the  next  morning. 

There  were  many  difficulties  in  the  matter.  Capital  punishments  were 
unusual  and  very  unpopular  at  Rome.  And  there  was  an  old  law  of 
Porcius  Lecca,  a  tribune  of  the  people,  which  granted  to  all  criminals 
who  were  capitally  condemned  an  appeal  to  the  people;  and  also  a 
law  had  been  passed,  since  his  time,  by  Caius  Gracchus,  to  prohibit 
the  taking  away  the  life  of  any  citizen  without  a  formal  hearing  before 
the  people.  And  these  considerations  had  so  much  weight  with  some 
of  the  senators,  that  they  absented  themselves  from  the  Senate  during 
this  debate,  in  order  to  have  no  share  in  sentencing  prisoners  of  such 
high  rank  to  death.  The  debate  was  opened  by  Silanus,  the  consul- 
elect,  who  declared  his  opinion,  that  those  in  custody,  and  those  also 
who  should  be  taken  subsequently,  should  all  be  put  to  death.  Every- 
one who  followed  him  agreed  with  him,  till  Julius  Caesar,  the  praetor- 
elect  (who  has  been  often  suspected  of  having  been,  at  least  to  some 
extent,  privy  to  the  conspiracy),  rose,  and  in  an  elaborate  speech  pro- 
posed that  they  should  not  be  put  to  death,  but  that  their  estates  should 
be  confiscated,  and  they  themselves  kept  in  perpetual  confinement. 
Cato  opposed  him  with  great  earnestness.  But  some  of  Cicero's  friends 
appeared  inclined  to  Caesar's  motion,  thinking  it  a  safer  measure  for 

53 


54  CICERO 

Cicero  himself;  l»ut  when  Cicero  peren\«l  this,  he  ro$e  himself,  and 
discussed  the  opinions  both  of  Silanus  and  Caesar  in  the  following 
speech,  which  decided  the  Senate  to  vote  for  their  condemns  i 
And  as  soon  as  the  vote  had  passed,  Cicero  went  immediately  from 
the  senate-house,  took  Lentulus  from  the  custody  of  his  kinsman 
Lentulus  Spinther,  and  delivered  him  to  the  executioner.  The  other 
conspirators,  Cethegus,  Statilius,  Gabinius,  etc..  were  in  like  manner 
conducted  to  execution  by  the  pra-tors;  and  Cicero  was  conducted 
home  to  his  house  in  triumph  by  the  whole  body  of  the  Senate  and 
by  the  knights,  the  whole  multitude  following  him,  and  saluting  him 
as  their  deliverer. 


FOURTH  ORATION  AGAINST  CATILINE 

I  SEE,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  the  looks  and  eyes  of  you  all 
are  turned  toward  me ;  I  see  that  you  are  anxious  not  only 
for  your  own  danger  and  that  of  the  republic,  but  even,  if 
that  be  removed,  for  mine.  Your  good-will  is  delightful  to 
one  amid  evils  and  pleasing  amid  grief ;  but  I  entreat  you,  in  the 
name  of  the  immortal  gods,  lay  it  aside  now,  and,  forgetting  my 
safety,  think  of  yourselves  and  of  your  children.  If,  indeed, 
this  condition  of  the  consulship  has  been  allotted  to  me,  that  I 
should  bear  all  bitterness,  all  pains  and  tortures,  I  will  bear 
them  not  only  bravely,  but  even  cheerfully,  provided  that  by  my 
toils  dignity  and  safety  are  procured  for  you  and  for  the  Roman 
people. 

I  am  that  consul,  O  conscript  fathers,  to  whom  neither  the 
forum  in  which  all  justice  is  contained,  nor  the  Campus  Mar- 
tius,1  consecrated  to  the  consular  assemblies,  nor  the  senate- 
house,  the  chief  assistance  of  all  nations,  nor  my  own  home, 
the  common  refuge  of  all  men,  nor  my  bed  devoted  to  rest,  in 
short,  not  even  this  seat  of  honor,  this  curule  chair,  has  ever 
been  free  from  the  danger  of  death,  or  from  plots  and  treachery. 
I  have  been  silent  about  many  things,  I  have  borne  much,  I 
have  conceded  much,  I  have  remedied  many  things  with  some 
pain  to  myself,  amid  the  alarm  of  you  all.  Now  if  the  immortal 
gods  have  determined  that  there  shall  be  this  end  to  my  consul- 
ship, that  I  should  snatch  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  and  the 
Roman  people  from  miserable  slaughter,  your  wives  and  chil- 
dren and  the  vestal  virgins  from  most  bitter  distress,  the  tem- 
ples and  shrines  of  the  gods,  and  this  most  lovely  country  of  all 
of  us,  from  impious  flames,  all  Italy  from  war  and  devastation  ; 

1  The  Campus  Martins  was  consecrated        at    which    all    magistrates    were    created 
or  restored  to  Mars  after  the  expulsion        were  held  there, 
of  the  Tarquins;  the  comitia  ccnturiata 

55 


56  CICERO 

then,  whatever  fortune  is  laid  up  for  me  by  myself,  it  shall  be 
borne.     If,  indeed.  Publius  I  bc-ini;  led  on  by  so. 

savers,  believed  that  his  name  was  connectr.l  1>> 
the  destruction  of  the  republic,  why  should  not  I  rejoice  that  my 
consulship  has  taken  place  almost  by  the  express  appointment 
of  fate  for  the  preservation  of  the  republic? 

Wherefore,  O  conscript  fathers,  consult  the  welfare  of  j 
.  es,  provide  for  that  of  the  republic;  preserve  yourselves, 
your  wives,  your  children,  and  your  fortun  nd  the  name 

and  safety  of  the  Roman  people  ;  cease  to  spare  me.  and  to  think 
of  me.     For,  in  the  ti  .1  onjjht  to  hope  that  all  the  gods 

who  preside  over  this  city  will  show  me  gratitude  in  propori 
as  I  deserve  it ;  and  in  the  second  place,  if  anything  does  happen 
to  me,  I  shall  fall  with  a  contented  and  prepared  mind  ;  and,  in- 
deed, death  cannot  be  disgraceful  to  a  brave  man,  nor  prema- 
ture to  one  of  consular  rank,  nor  miserable  to  a  wise  man.  Not 
that  I  am  a  man  of  so  iron  a  disposition  as  not  to  be  moved  by 
the  grief  of  a  most  dear  and  affectionate  brother  now  present, 
and  by  the  tears  of  all  these  men  by  whom  you  now  see  me  sur- 
rounded. Nor  does  my  fainting  wife,  my  daughter  prostrate 
with  fear,  and  my  little  son  whom  the  republic  seems  to  me  to 
embrace  as  a  sort  of  hostage  for  my  consulship,  the  son-in-law 
who,  awaiting  the  end  of  that  day,  is  now  standing  in  my  sight, 
fail  often  to  recall  my  mind  to  my  home.  I  am  moved  by  all 
these  circumstances,  but  in  such  a  direction  as  to  wish  that  they 
all  may  be  safe  together  with  you,  even  if  some  violence  over- 
whelms me,  rather  than  that  both  they  and  we  should  perish 
together  with  the  republic. 

Wherefore,  O  conscript  fathers,  attend  to  the  safety  of  the 
republic ;  look  around  upon  all  the  storms  which  are  impending, 
unless  you  guard  against  them.  It  is  not  Tiberius  Gracchus, 
who  wished  to  be  made  a  second  time  a  tribune  of  the  people ; 
it  is  not  Caius  Gracchus,  who  endeavored  to  excite  the  parti- 
sans of  the  agrarian  law ;  it  is  not  Lucius  Saturninus,  who  slew 
Memmius,  who  is  now  in  some  danger,  who  is  now  brought 
before  the  tribunal  of  your  severity.  They  are  now  in  your 
hands  who  withstood  all  Rome,  with  the  object  of  bringing 
conflagration  on  the  whole  city,  massacre  on  all  of  you,  and  •  .f 
receiving  Catiline;  their  letters  are  in  your  possession,  their 
seals,  their  handwriting,  and  the  confession  of  each  individual 


FOURTH   ORATION   AGAINST   CATILINE  57 

of  them ;  the  Allobroges  are  tampered  with,  the  slaves  are  ex- 
cited, Catiline  is  sent  for ;  the  design  is  actually  begun  to  be  put 
in  execution,  that  all  should  be  put  to  death,  so  that  no  one 
should  be  left  even  to  mourn  the  name  of  the  republic,  and  to 
lament  over  the  downfall  of  so  mighty  a  dominion. 

All  these  things  the  witnesses  have  informed  you  of,  the  pris- 
oners have  confessed,  you  by  many  judgments  have  already 
decided ;  first,  because  you  have  thanked  me  in  unprecedented 
language,  and  have  passed  a  vote  that  the  conspiracy  of  aban- 
doned men  has  been  laid  open  by  my  virtue  and  diligence ; 
secondly,  because  you  have  compelled  Publius  Lentulus  to  ab- 
dicate the  prsetorship ;  again,  because  you  have  voted  that  he 
and  the  others  about  whom  you  have  decided  should  be  given 
into  custody ;  and,  above  all,  because  you  have  decreed  a  sup- 
plication in  my  name,  an  honor  which  has  never  been  paid  to 
anyone  before  acting  in  a  civil  capacity ;  last  of  all,  because  yes- 
terday you  gave  most  ample  rewards  to  the  ambassadors  of  the 
Allobroges  and  to  Titus  Vulturcius  ;  all  which  acts  are  such  that 
they,  who  have  been  given  into  custody  by  name,  without  any 
doubt  seem  already  condemned  by  you. 

But  I  have  determined  to  refer  the  business  to  you  as  a  fresh 
matter,  O  conscript  fathers,  both  as  to  the  fact,  what  you  think 
of  it,  and  as  to  the  punishment,  what  you  vote.  I  will  state 
what  it  behooves  the  consul  to  state.  I  have  seen  for  a  long  time 
great  madness  existing  in  the  republic,  and  new  designs  being 
formed,  and  evil  passions  being  stirred  up,  but  I  never  thought 
that  so  great,  so  destructive  a  conspiracy  as  this  was  being  med- 
itated by  citizens.  Now  to  whatever  point  your  minds  and 
opinions  incline,  you  must  decide  before  night.  You  see  how 
great  a  crime  has  been  made  known  to  you ;  if  you  think  that 
but  few  are  implicated  in  it  you  are  greatly  mistaken ;  this  evil 
has  spread  wider  than  you  think;  it  has  spread  not  only 
throughout  Italy,  but  it  has  even  crossed  the  Alps,  and  creeping 
stealthily  on,  it  has  already  occupied  many  of  the  provinces; 
it  can  by  no  means  be  crushed  by  tolerating  it,  and  by  tempor- 
izing with  it ;  however  you  determine  on  chastising  it,  you  must 
act  with  promptitude. 

I  see  that  as  yet  there  are  two  opinions.  One  that  of  Decius 
Silanus,  who  thinks  that  those  who  have  endeavored  to  destroy 
all  these  things  should  be  punished  with  death ;  the  other,  that 


58  CICERO 

of  Caius  Caesar,  who  objects  to  the  punishment  of  death,  but 
adopts  tlu-  most  extreme  severity  of  all  otlur  punishment. 
Each  acts  in  a  manner  suitable  to  his  own  dignity  and  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  business  with  the  greatest  severity.  The  one 
thinks  that  it  is  not  right  that  those,  who  have  attempted  to  de- 
prive all  of  us  and  the  whole  Roman  people  of  life,  to  destroy 
the  empire,  to  extinguish  the  name  of  the  Roman  people,  should 
enjoy  life  and  the  breath  of  heaven  common  to  us  all,  for  one 
moment;  and  he  remembers  that  this  sort  of  punishment  has 
often  been  employed  against  worthless  citizens  in  this  republic. 
The  other  feels  that  death  was  not  appointed  by  the  immortal 
gods  for  the  sake  of  punishment,  but  that  it  is  either  a  necessity 
of  nature,  or  a  rest  from  toils  and  miseries ;  therefore,  wise  nun 
have  never  met  it  unwillingly,  brave  men  have  often  encoun- 
tered it  even  voluntarily.  But  imprisonment,  and  that  too  per- 
petual was  certainly  invented  for  the  extraordinary  punishment 
of  nefarious  wickedness ;  therefore  he  proposes  that  they  should 
be  distributed  among  the  municipal  towns.  This  proposition 
seems  to  have  in  it  injustice  if  you  command  it,  difficulty  if  you 
request  it ;  however,  let  it  be  so  decreed  if  you  like. 

For  I  will  undertake,  and  as  I  hope,  I  shall  find  one  who  will 
not  think  it  suitable  to  his  dignity  to  refuse  what  you  decide  on 
for  the  sake  of  the  universal  safety.  He  imposes  besides  a  se- 
vere punishment  of  the  burgesses  of  the  municipal  town  if  any 
of  the  prisoners  escape;  he  surrounds  them  with  the  most 
terrible  guard,  and  with  everything  worthy  of  the  wickedness 
of  abandoned  men.  And  he  proposes  to  establish  a  decree  that 
no  one  shall  be  able  to  alleviate  the  punishment  of  those  whom 
he  is  condemning  by  a  vote  of  either  the  Senate  or  the  people. 
He  takes  away  even  hope,  which  alone  can  comfort  men  in  their 
miseries ;  besides  this,  he  votes  that  their  goods  should  be  con- 
fiscated ;  he  leaves  life  alone  to  these  infamous  men,  and  if  he 
had  taken  that  away,  he  would  have  relieved  them  by  one  pang 
of  many  tortures  of  mind  and  body,  and  of  all  the  punishment 
of  their  crimes.  Therefore,  that  there  might  be  some  dread  in 
life  to  the  wicked,  men  of  old  have  believed  that  there  were  some 
punishments  of  that  sort  appointed  for  the  wicked  in  the  shades 
below ;  because  in  truth  they  perceived  that  if  this  were  taken 
away  death  itself  would  not  be  terrible. 

Xow,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  see  what  is  my  interest;  if  you 


FOURTH   ORATION   AGAINST   CATILINE  59 

follow  the  opinion  of  Caius  Caesar  (since  he  has  adopted  this 
path  in  the  republic  which  is  accounted  the  popular  one),  per- 
haps since  he  is  the  author  and  promoter  of  this  opinion,  the 
popular  violence  will  be  less  to  be  dreaded  by  me ;  if  you  adopt 
the  other  opinion,  I  know  not  whether  I  am  not  likely  to  have 
more  trouble;  but  still  let  the  advantage  of  the  republic  out- 
weigh the  consideration  of  my  danger.  For  we  have  from 
Caius  Caesar,  as  his  own  dignity  and  as  the  illustrious  character 
of  his  ancestors  demanded,  a  vote  as  a  hostage  of  his  lasting 
good-will  to  the  republic ;  it  has  been  clearly  seen  how  great  is 
the  difference  between  the  lenity  of  demagogues,  and  a  dispo- 
sition really  attached  to  the  interests  of  the  people.  I  see 
that  of  those  men  who  wish  to  be  considered  attached  to  the 
people  one  man  is  absent,  that  they  may  not  seem  forsooth  to 
give  a  vote  about  the  lives  of  Roman  citizens.  He  only  three 
days  ago  gave  Roman  citizens  into  custody,  and  decreed  me  a 
supplication,  and  voted  most  magnificent  rewards  to  the  wit- 
nesses only  yesterday.  It  is  not  now  doubtful  to  anyone  what 
he,  who  voted  for  the  imprisonment  of  the  criminals,  congratu- 
lation to  him  who  had  detected  them,  and  rewards  to  those  who 
had  proved  the  crime,  thinks  of  the  whole  matter,  and  of  the 
cause.  But  Caius  Caesar  considers  that  the  Sempronian  2  law 
was  passed  about  Roman  citizens,  but  that  he  who  is  an  enemy 
of  the  republic  can  by  no  means  be  a  citizen ;  and  moreover,  that 
the  very  proposer  of  the  Sempronian  law  suffered  punishment 
by  the  command  of  the  people.  He  also  denies  that  Lentulus, 
a  briber  and  a  spendthrift,  after  he  has  formed  such  cruel  and 
bitter  plans  about  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  people,  and  the 
ruin  of  this  city,  can  be  called  a  friend  of  the  people.  Therefore 
this  most  gentle  and  merciful  man  does  not  hesitate  to  commit 
Publius  Lentulus  to  eternal  darkness  and  imprisonment,  and 
establishes  a  law  to  all  posterity  that  no  one  shall  be  able  to 
boast  of  alleviating  his  punishment,  or  hereafter  to  appear  a 
friend  of  the  people  to  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  people. 
He  adds  also  the  confiscation  of  their  goods,  so  that  want  also 
and  beggary  may  be  added  to  all  the  torments  of  mind  and 
body. 

2  The    Sempronian    law    was   proposed  oration    Pro   Rabir.    c.    4.    where    Cicero 

by   Caius   Gracchus,    B.C.    123,    and    en-  says.  "  Caius  Gracchus  passed  a  law  that 

acted  that  the  people  only  should  decide  no  decision  should  be  come  to  about  the 

respecting  the  life  or  civil  condition  of  life    of    a    Roman    citizen    without    your 

a  citizen.     It  is  alluded  to  also  in  the  command,"  speaking  to  the  Quirites. 


60  CICERO 

Wherefore,  if  you  decide  on  this  you  give  me  a  companion  in 
my  address,  dear  and  acceptable  to  the  Roman  people ;  or  if 
you  prefer  to  adopt  the  opinion  of  S  •  <>u  will  easily  defend 

me  and  yourselves  from  the  reproach  of  cruelty,  and  1  will  ; 
vail  that  it  shall  be  much   lighter.     Although,  O  conscript 
fathers,  what  cruelty  can  there  be  in  cha  he  enormity 

of  such  excessive  wickedness  ?  For  I  decide  from  my  own  i 
ing.  For  so  may  I  be  allowed  to  enjoy  the  republic  in  sa: 
in  your  company,  as  I  am  not  moved  to  be  somewhat  vehement 
in  this  cause  by  any  severity  of  disposition  (for  who  is  more 
merciful  than  I  am?),  but  rather  by  a  singular  humanity  an«l 
mercifulness.  For  I  seem  to  myself  to  sec  this  city,  the  light 
of  the  world,  and  the  citadel  of  all  nations,  falling  on  a  sudden 
by  one  conflagration.  I  see  in  my  mind's  eye  miserable  and 
unburied  heaps  of  cities  in  my  buried  country ;  the  sight  of 
Cethegus  and  his  madness  raging  amid  your  slaughter  is  ever 
present  to  my  sight.  But  when  I  have  set  before  myself  Len- 
tulus  reigning,  as  he  himself  confesses  that  he  had  hoped  was 
his  destiny,  and  this  Gabinius  arrayed  in  the  purple,  and  Cati- 
line arrived  with  his  army,  then  I  shudder  at  the  lamentation  of 
matrons,  and  the  flight  of  virgins  and  of  boys,  and  the  insults 
of  the  vestal  virgins ;  and  because  these  things  appear  to  me  ex- 
ceedingly miserable  and  pitiable,  therefore  I  show  myself  severe 
and  rigorous  to  those  who  have  wished  to  bring  about  this 
state  of  things.  I  ask.  forsooth,  if  any  father  of  a  family,  sup- 
posing his  children  had  been  slain  by  a  slave,  his  wife  murdered, 
his  house  burned,  were  not  to  inflict  on  his  slaves  the  severest 
possible  punishment,  would  he  appear  clement  and  merciful,  or 
most  inhuman  and  cruel?  To  me  he  would  seem  unnatural 
and  hard-hearted  who  did  not  soothe  his  own  pain  and  anguish 
by  the  pain  and  torture  of  the  criminal.  And  so  we,  in  the  case 
of  these  men  who  desired  to  murder  us,  and  our  wives,  and  our 
children — who  endeavored  to  destroy  the  houses  of  every  indi- 
vidual among  us,  and  also  the  republic,  the  home  of  all — who 
designed  to  place  the  nation  of  the  Allobroges  on  the  relics  of 
this  city,  and  on  the  ashes  of  the  empire  destroyed  by  fire ;  if  we 
are  very  rigorous,  we  shall  be  considered  merciful :  if  we 
choose  to  be  lax.  we  must  endure  the  character  of  the  greatest 
cruelty,  to  the  damage  of  our  country  and  our  fellow-citizens. 


FOURTH   ORATION   AGAINST  CATILINE  61 

Unless,  indeed,  Lucius  3  Caesar,  a  thoroughly  brave  man,  and 
of  the  best  disposition  toward  the  republic,  seemed  to  anyone 
to  be  too  cruel  three  days  ago,  when  he  said  that  the  husband 
of  his  own  sister,  a  most  excellent  woman  (in  his  presence  and 
in  his  hearing),  ought  to  be  deprived  of  life — when  he  said  that 
his  grandfather  had  been  put  to  death  by  command  of  the  con- 
sul, and  his  youthful  son,  sent  as  an  ambassador  by  his  father, 
had  been  put  to  death  in  prison.  And  what  deed  had  they  done 
like  these  men?  had  they  formed  any  plan  for  destroying  the 
republic  ?  At  that  time  great  corruption  was  rife  in  the  repub- 
lic, and  there  was  tne  greatest  strike  between  parties.  And,  at 
that  time,  the  grandfather  of  this  Lentulus,  a  most  illustrious 
man,  put  on  his  armor  and  pursued  Gracchus ;  he  even  received 
a  severe  wound  that  there  might  be  no  diminution  of  the  great 
dignity  of  the  republic.  But  this  man,  his  grandson,  invited 
the  Gauls  to  overthrow  the  foundations  of  the  republic;  he 
stirred  up  the  slaves,  he  summoned  Catiline,  he  distributed  us 
to  Cethegus  to  be  massacred,  and  the  rest  of  the  citizens  to 
Gabinius  to  be  assassinated,  the  city  he  allotted  to  Cassius  to 
burn,  and  the  plundering  and  devastating  of  all  Italy  he  as- 
signed to  Catiline.  You  fear,  I  think,  lest  in  the  case  of  such 
unheard-of  and  abominable  wickedness  you  should  seem  to  de- 
cide anything  with  too  great  severity;  when  we  ought  much 
more  to  fear  lest  by  being  remiss  in  punishing  we  should  appear 
cruel  to  our  country,  rather  than  appear  by  the  severity  of  our 
irritation  too  rigorous  to  its  most  bitter  enemies. 

But,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  cannot  conceal  what  I  hear ;  for 
sayings  are  bruited  about,  which  come  to  my  ears,  of  those  men 
who  seem  to  fear  that  I  may  not  have  force  enough  to  put  in  ex- 
ecution the  things  which  you  determine  on  this  day.  Every- 
thing is  provided  for,  and  prepared,  and  arranged,  O  conscript 
fathers,  both  by  my  exceeding  care  and  diligence,  and  also  by 
the  still  greater  zeal  of  the  Roman  people  for  the  retaining  of 
their  supreme  dominion,  and  for  the  preserving  of  the  fortunes 
of  all.  All  men  of  all  ranks  are  present,  and  of  all  ages ;  the 
forum  is  full,  the  temples  around  the  forum  are  full,  all  the  ap- 

*  The  brother-in-law  of  Lucius   Caesar  his  surrender,  whom  Opimius  sent  back 

was    Marcus    Fulvius,    whose    death,    at  the  first  time,  and  forbade  to  return  to 

the  command  of  Opimius  the  consul,  is  him;  when  he  did  return,  he  put  him 

referred  to  in  the  zd  cap.  ist  Cat.     He  to  death, 
sent  his  son  to  the  consul  to  treat  for 


6x  CICERO 

preaches  to  this  place  and  to  this  temple  are  full.  For  this  is 
the  t>nl\  cause  that  has  ever  been  known  since  the  first  founda- 
tion of  the  city,  in  which  all  men  were  of  one  and  the  same  oj 
ion — except  those,  who,  as  they  saw  they  must  be  ruined,  pre- 
ferred to  perish  in  company  with  all  the  world  rather  than  by 
themselves. 

These  men  I  except,  and  I  willingly  set  them  apart  from  the 
rest ;  for  I  do  not  think  that  they  should  be  classed  in  the  num- 
ber of  worthless  citizens,  but  in  that  of  the  most  bitter  enen; 
But,  as  for  the  rest ;  O  ye  immortal  gods !  in  what  crowds,  with 
what  zeal,  with  what  virtue  do  they  agree  in1  defence  of  the  com- 
mon dignity  and  safety.  Why  should  I  here  speak  of  the 
Roman  knights  ?  who  yield  to  you  the  supremacy  in  rank  and 
wisdom,  in  order  to  vie  with  you  in  love  for  the  republic — whom 
this  day  and  this  cause  now  reunite  with  you  in  alliance  and 
unanimity  with  your  body,  reconciled  after  a  disagreement  of 
many  years.  And  if  we  can  preserve  forever  in  the  republic 
this  union  now  established  in  my  consulship,  I  pledge  myself 
to  you  that  no  civil  and  domestic  calamity  can  hereafter  reach 
any  part  of  the  republic.  I  see  that  the  tribunes  of  the  treasury 
—excellent  men — have  united  with  similar  zeal  in  defence  of  the 
republic,  and  all  the  notaries.4  For  as  this  day  had  by  chance 
brought  them  in  crowds  to  the  treasury,  I  see  that  they  were 
diverted  from  an  anxiety  for  the  money  due  to  them,  from  an 
expectation  of  their  capital,  to  a  regard  for  the  common  safety. 
The  entire  multitude  of  honest  men, even  the  poorest, is  present : 
for  who  is  there  to  whom  these  temples,  the  sight  of  the  city, 
the  possession  of  liberty — in  short,  this  light  and  this  soil  of  his, 
common  to  us  all,  is  not  both  dear  and  pleasant  and  delightful? 

It  is  worth  while,  O  conscript  fathers,  to  know  the  inclina- 
tions of  the  freedmen ;  who,  having  by  their  good  fortune 
obtained  the  rights  of  citizens,  consider  this  to  be  really  their 
country,  which  some  who  have  been  born  here,  and  born  in  the 
highest  rank,  have  considered  to  be  not  their  own  country,  but  a 
city  of  enemies.  But  why  should  I  speak  of  men  of  this  body 
whom  their  private  fortunes,  whom  their  common  republic, 

*  The  notaries  at   Rome  were   in  the  tain  the  office  of  scriba  by  purchase  (see 

pay  of  the  state;  they  were  chiefly  em-  Cic.  in  Verr.  ii.  79),  ana  freedmen  and 

ployed    in    making    up    the    public    ac-  their  sons  frequently  availed  themselves 

counts.     In  the  time  of  Cicero  it  seems  of  this  privilege, 
to  have  been  lawful  for  anyone  to  ob- 


FOURTH   ORATION   AGAINST   CATILINE  63 

whom,  in  short,  that  liberty  which  is  most  delightful  has  called 
forth  to  defend  the  safety  of  their  country  ?  There  is  no  slave 
who  is  only  in  an  endurable  condition  of  slavery  who  does  not 
shudder  at  the  audacity  of  citizens,  who  does  not  desire  that 
these  things  may  stand,  who  does  not  contribute  all  the  good- 
will that  he  can,  and  all  that  he  dares,  to  the  common  safety. 

Wherefore,  if  this  consideration  moves  anyone,  that  it  has 
been  heard  that  some  tool  of  Lentulus  is  running  about  the 
shops — is  hoping  that  the  minds  of  some  poor  and  ignorant 
men  may  be  corrupted  by  bribery;  that,  indeed,  has  been  at- 
tempted and  begun,  but  none  have  been  found  either  so 
wretched  in  their  fortune  or  so  abandoned  in  their  inclination  as 
not  to  wish  the  place  of  their  seat  and  work  and  daily  gain,  their 
chamber  and  their  bed,  and,  in  short,  the  tranquil  course  of  their 
lives,  to  be  still  preserved  to  them.  And  far  the  greater  part 
of  those  who  are  in  the  shops — ay,  indeed  (for  that  is  the  more 
correct  way  of  speaking),  the  whole  of  this  class  is  of  all  the 
most  attached  to  tranquillity ;  their  whole  stock,  forsooth,  their 
whole  employment  and  livelihood,  exists  by  the  peaceful  inter- 
course of  the  citizens,  and  is  wholly  supported  by  peace.  And 
if  their  gains  are  diminished  whenever  their  shops  are  shut, 
what  will  they  be  when  they  are  burned  ?  And,  as  this  is  the 
case,  O  conscript  fathers,  the  protection  of  the  Roman  people 
is  not  wanting  to  you ;  do  you  take  care  that  you  do  not  seem  to 
be  wanting  to  the  Roman  people. 

You  have  a  consul  preserved  out  of  many  dangers  and  plots, 
and  from  death  itself,  not  for  his  own  life,  but  for  your  safety. 
All  ranks  agree  for  the  preservation  of  the  republic  with  heart 
and  will,  with  zeal,  with  virtue,  with  their  voice.  Your  com- 
mon country,  besieged  by  the  hands  and  weapons  of  an  impious 
conspiracy,  stretches  forth  her  hands  to  you  as  a  suppliant ;  to 
you  she  recommends  herself,  to  you  she  recommends  the  lives 
of  all  the  citizens,  and  the  citadel,  and  the  Capitol,  and  the  altars 
of  the  household  gods,  and  the  eternal  unextinguishable  fire  of 
Vesta,  and  all  the  temples  of  all  the  gods,  and  the  altars  and  the 
walls  and  the  houses  of  the  city.  Moreover,  your  own  lives, 
those  of  your  wives  and  children,  the  fortunes  of  all  men,  your 
homes,  your  hearths,  are  this  day  interested  in  your  decision. 

You  have  a  leader  mindful  of  you,  forgetful  of  himself — an 
opportunity  which  is  not  always  given  to  men;  you  have  all 


04  CICERO 

ranks,  all  in  .  tin-  whole  R.nnan  people  (a  thin 

in  civil  tran  we  see  this  d  >.  full  of 

one  and  the  same  feeling.  Think  with  what  j^n-at  labor 
dominion  was  founded,  by  what  virtue  this  our  liberty  was  es- 
tablished, by  what  kind  favor  of  the  gods  our  fortunes  were 
aggrandized  and  ennobled,  and  how  nearly  one  night  destroyed 
them  all.  That  this  may  never  hereafter  be  able  not  only  to  be 
done,  but  not  even  to  be  thought  of,  you  must  this  day  take 
care.  And  I  have  spoken  thus,  not  in  order  to  stir  you  up  who 
almost  outrun  me  myself,  but  that  my  voice,  which  ought  to  be 
the  chief  voice  in  the  republic,  may  appear  to  have  fulfilled  the 
duty  which  belongs  to  me  as  consul. 

Now,  before  I  return  to  the  decision,  I  will  say  a  few  words 
concerning  myself.  As  numerous  as  is  the  band  of  conspira- 
tors— and  you  see  that  it  is  very  great — so  numerous  a  multi- 
tude of  enemies  do  I  see  that  I  have  brought  upon  myself.  But 
I  consider  them  base  and  powerless  and  despicable  and  abject. 
But  if  at  any  time  that  band  shall  be  excited  by  the  wickedness 
and  madness  of  anyone,  and  shall  show  itself  more  powerful 
than  your  dignity  and  that  of  the  republic,  yet,  O  conscript 
fathers,  I  shall  never  repent  of  my  actions  and  of  my  ad\ 
Death,  indeed,  which  they  perhaps  threaten  me  with,  is  pre- 
pared for  all  men ;  such  glory  during  life  as  you  have  honored 
me  with  by  your  decrees  no  one  has  ever  attained  to.  For  you 
have  passed  votes  of  congratulation  to  others  for  having  gov- 
erned the  republic  successfully,  but  to  me  alone  for  having 
saved  it. 

Let  Scipio  be  thought  illustrious,  he  by  whose  wisdom  and 
valor  Hannibal  was  compelled  to  return  into  Africa,  and  to  de- 
part from  Italy.  Let  the  second  Africanus  be  extolled  with 
conspicuous  praise,  who  destroyed  two  cities  most  hostile  to 
this  empire,  Carthage  and  Xumantia.  Let  Lucius  Paullus  be 
thought  a  great  man,  he  whose  triumphal  car  was  graced  by 
Perses,  previously  a  most  powerful  and  noble  monarch.  Let 
Marius  be  held  in  eternal  honor,  who  twice  delivered  Italy  from 
siege,  and  from  the  fear  of  slavery.  Let  Pompey  be  preferred 
to  them  all — Pompey,  whose  exploits  and  whose  virtues  are 
bounded  by  the  same  districts  and  limits  as  the  course  of  the 
sun.  There  will  be,  forsooth,  among  the  praises  of  these  men, 
some  room  for  my  glory,  unless  haply  it  be  a  greater  deed  to 


65 

open  to  us  provinces  whither  we  may  fly,  than  to  take  care  that 
those  who  are  at  a  distance  may,  when  conquerors,  have  a  home 
to  return  to. 

Although  in  one  point  the  circumstances  of  foreign  triumph 
are  better  than  those  of  domestic  victory ;  because  foreign  ene- 
mies, either  if  they  be  crushed,  become  one's  servants,  or 
if  they  be  received  into  the  state,  think  themselves  bound  to 
us  by  obligation ;  but  those  of  the  number  of  citizens  who  be- 
come depraved  by  madness  and  once  begin  to  be  enemies  to 
their  country — those  men,  when  you  have  defeated  their  at- 
tempts to  injure  the  republic,  you  can  neither  restrain  by  force 
nor  conciliate  by  kindness.  So  that  I  see  that  an  eternal  war 
with  all  wicked  citizens  has  been  undertaken  by  me ;  which, 
however,  I  am  confident  can  easily  be  driven  back  from  me  and 
mine  by  your  aid,  and  by  that  of  all  good  men,  and  by  the  mem- 
ory of  such  great  dangers,  which  will  remain,  not  only  among 
this  people  which  has  been  saved,  but  in  the  discourse  and 
minds  of  all  nations  forever.  Nor,  in  truth,  can  any  power  be 
found  which  will  be  able  to  undermine  and  destroy  your  union 
with  the  Roman  knights,  and  such  unanimity  as  exists  among 
all  good  men. 

As,  then,  this  is  the  case,  O  conscript  fathers,  instead  of  my 
military  command  —  instead  of  the  army  —  instead  of  the 
province 5  which  I  have  neglected,  and  the  other  badges 
of  honor  which  have  been  rejected  by  me  for  the  sake  of 
protecting  the  city  and  your  safety — in  place  of  the  ties  of 
clientship  and  hospitality  with  citizens  in  the  provinces,  which, 
however,  by  my  influence  in  the  city,  I  study  to  preserve 
with  as  much  toil  as  I  labor  to  acquire  them — in  place  of 
all  these  things,  and  in  reward  for  my  singular  zeal  in  your 
behalf,  and  for  this  diligence  in  saving  the  republic  which 
you  behold,  I  ask  nothing  of  you  but  the  recollection  of  this 
time  and  of  my  whole  consulship.  And  as  long  as  that  is  fixed 
in  your  minds,  I  shall  think  I  am  fenced  round  by  the  strongest 
wall.  But  if  the  violence  of  wicked  men  shall  deceive  and  over- 
power my  expectations,  I  recommend  to  you  my  little  son,  to 

•  Cicero,  in  order  to  tempt  Antonius  having  accepted  that  of  Cisalpine  Gaul 

to   aid   him   in    counteracting   the    trea-  in  exchange  for  it,  he  gave  that  also  to 

sonable   designs  of   Catiline,   had   given  Quintus  Metellus;  being  resolved  to  re- 

up  to  him  the  province  of   Macedonia.  ceive    no   emojument,    directly    or    indi- 

which   had  fallen  to  his  own  lot;   and  rectly,  from  his  consulship. 


66 


CICERO 


whom,  in  truth,  it  will  he  protection  enough,  not  only  for  his 
safety,  hut  even  for  his  dignity,  if  you  recollect  that  he  is  the 
son  of  him  who  has  saved  all  these  things  at  his  own  single  r 

Wherefore,  O  conscript  fatlu  :  :nine  with  i.m  ,  as  you 

have  begun,  and  boldly,  concerning  your  own  and  that 

of  the  Roman  people,  and  concerning  your  wives  and  child i 
concerning  your  altars  and  your  hearths,  your  shrines  and  tem- 
ples ;  concerning  the  houses  and  homes  of  the  whole  city ;  con- 
cerning your  dominion,  your  liberty,  and  the  safety  of  Italy  and 
the  whole  republic.  For  you  have  a  consul  who  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  obey  your  decrees,  and  who  will  be  able,  as  long  as  he 
lives,  to  defend  what  you  decide  on,  and  of  his  own  power  to 
execute  it.8 


•  This  speech  was  spoken,  and  the 
criminals  executed,  on  the  fifth  of  De- 
cember. But  Catiline  was  not  vet  en- 
tirely overcome.  He  had  with  him  in 
Etruria  two  legions — about  twelve  thou- 
sand men;  of  which,  however,  not  above 
one-quarter  were  regularly  armed.  For 
some  time  by  marches  and  counter- 
marches he  eluded  Antonius,  but  when 
the  news  reached  hi*  army  of  the  fate 
of  the  rest  of  the  conspirators,  it  began 
to  desert  him  in  great  numbers.  He 
attempted  to  escape  into  Gaul,  but 
found  himself  intercepted  by  Metellus, 


who  had  been  sent  thither  by  Cicero 
with  three  legions.  Antonius  is  sup- 
posed not  to  nave  been  disinclined  to 
connive  at  his  escape,  if  he  had  not  been 
compelled  as  it  were  by  bis  qiuestor 
Sextus  and  his  lieutenant  Petreius  to 
force  him  to  a  battle,  in  which,  however. 
Antonius  himself,  being  ill  of  the  gout, 
did  not  take  the  command,  which  de- 
volved on  Petreius,  who  after  a  severe 
action  destroyed  Catiline  and  his  whole 
army,  of  which  every  man  is  said  to 
have  been  slain  in  the  battle. 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF 
LUCIUS  MURENA 


THE  ARGUMENT 

Lucius  Murena  was  one  of  the  consuls  elect;  the  other  being  Silanus, 
the  brother-in-law  of  Cato.  Cato,  however,  instigated  Sulpicius,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  in  Rome,  and  a  defeated  competitor  for 
the  consulship,  to  prosecute  Murena  for  bribery,  under  the  new  law 
passed  by  Cicero  (mentioned  in  the  argument  to  the  first  oration  against 
Catiline),  though  he  brought  no  charge  against  Silanus,  who  was  as 
guilty  as  Murena,  if  there  was  any  guilt  at  all.  Murena  had  served  as 
lieutenant  to  Lucullus  in  the  Mithridatic  War.  Murena  was  defended 
by  Crassus,  Hortensius,  and  Cicero.  We  have  neither  of  the  speeches 
of  his  other  advocates;  and  even  the  speech  of  Cicero  is  not  in  a  per- 
fect state.  Murena  was  unanimously  acquitted,  partly  perhaps  from 
consideration  of  the  argument  which  Cicero  dwelt  upon  very  earnestly, 
of  what  great  importance  it  was,  at  such  a  perilous  time  (for  this 
oration  was  spoken  in  the  interval  between  the  flight  of  Catiline  to  the 
camp  of  Manlius,  and  the  final  detection  and  condemnation  of  the  con- 
spirators who  remained  behind),  to  have  a  consul  of  tried  bravery  and 
military  experience.  It  is  remarkable  that  Sulpicius,  the  prosecutor, 
was  a  most  intimate  friend  of  Cicero,  who  had  exerted  all  his  influ- 
ence to  procure  his  election  in  this  very  contest  for  the  consulship; 
and  so  also  was  Cato;  nor  did  the  opposition  which  Cicero  made  to 
them  in  this  case  cause  any  interruption  to  their  intimacy,  and  we 
shall  find,  in  the  Philippics,  Cicero  exerting  himself  to  procure  public 
funeral  honors  for  Sulpicius. 


68 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA 

WHAT  I  entreated  of  the  immortal  gods,  O  judges,  ac- 
cording to  the  manners  and  institutions  of  our  an- 
cestors, on  that  day  when,  after  taking  the  auspices 
in  the  comitia  centuriata,1  I  declared  Lucius  Murena  to  have 
been  elected  consul — namely,  that  that  fact  might  turn  out 
gloriously  and  happily  for  me  and  for  my  office,  and  for  the 
Roman  nation  and  people — that  same  thing  do  I  now  pray  for 
from  the  same  immortal  gods,  that  the  consulship  may  be  ob- 
tained by  that  same  man  with  safety,  and  that  your  inclina- 
tions and  opinions  may  agree  with  the  wishes  and  suffrages  of 
the  Roman  people,  and  that  that  fact  may  bring  to  you  and  to 
the  Roman  people  peace,  tranquillity,  ease,  and  unanimity. 
And  if  that  solemn  prayer  of  the  comitia,  consecrated  under  the 
auspices  of  the  consul,  has  as  much  power  and  holy  influence  as 
the  dignity  of  the  republic  requires,  I  pray  also  that  the  matter 
may  turn  out  happily,  fortunately,  and  prosperously  to  those 
men  to  whom  the  consulship  was  given  when  I  presided  over 
the  election. 

And  as  this  is  the  case,  O  judges,  and  as  all  the  powers  of  the 
immortal  gods  is  either  transferred  to,  or  at  all  events  is  shared 
with  you,  the  same  consul  recommends  him  now  to  your  good 
faith  who  before  recommended  him  to  the  immortal  gods;  so 
that  he  being  both  declared  consul  and  being  defended  by  the 
voice  of  the  same  man,  may  uphold  the  kindness  of  the  Roman 
people  to  your  safety  and  that  of  all  the  citizens.  And  since  in 
this  duty  which  I  have  undertaken  the  zeal  of  my  defence  has 
been  found  fault  with  by  the  accusers,  and  even  the  very  fact  of 
my  having  undertaken  the  cause  at  all,  before  I  begin  to  say 

1  The   comitia  centuriata,   or,    as   they  city,   and   in  reference  to   their   military 

were  sometimes  called,  majora,  were  the  organization    they    were    summoned    by 

assembly  in  which  the  people  gave  their  the  sound  of  the  horn,  not  by  the  voice 

votes  according  to  the  classification  in-  of    the    lictor.      All     magistrates    were 

stitutcd   by   Servius  Tullius;   they  were  elected  in  these  comitia. 
held  in  the  Campus  Martius  without  the 

69 


?0  CICERO 

anything  of  Lucius  Murcna,  I  will  say  a  few  words  on  behalf  of 
-elf;  not  because  at  this  time  the  defence  of  my  duty  seems  to 
me  more  important  than  that  of  his  safety,  but  in  order  that, 
when  what  I  have  done  is  approved  of  by  you,  I  may  be  able 
with  the  greater  authority  to  repel  the  attacks  of  his  enemies 
upon  his  honor,  his  reputation,  and  all  his  fortunes. 

And  first  of  all  I  will  answrr  Marcus  Cato,  a  man  who  directs 
his  life  by  a  certain  rule  and  system,  and  who  most  carefully 
weighs  the  motives  of  every  duty,  about  my  own  duty.  Cato 
says  it  is  not  right,  that  I  who  have  been  consul  and  the  very 
passer  *  of  the  law  of  bribery  and  corruption,  and  who  beha 
so  rigorously  in  my  own  consulship,  should  take  up  the  cause  of 
Lucius  Murena;  and  his  reproach  has  great  weight  with  me, 
and  makes  me  desirous  to  make  not  only  you,  O  judges,  whom 
I  am  especially  bound  to  satisfy,  but  also  Cato  himself,  a  most 
worthy  and  upright  man,  approve  the  reasons  of  my  action.  By 
whom  then,  O  Marcus  Cato,  is  it  more  just  that  a  consul  should 
be  defended  than  by  a  consul?  Who  can  there  be,  who  ought 
there  to  be,  dearer  to  me  in  the  republic,  than  he  to  whom  the 
republic  which  has  been  supported  by  my  great  labors  and  dan- 
gers is  delivered  by  me  alone  to  be  supported  for  the  future? 
For  if,  in  the  demanding  back  things  which  may  be  alienated,  he 
ought  to  incur  the  hazard  of  the  trial  who  has  bound  himself  by 
a  legal  obligation,  surely  still  more  rightly  in  the  trial  of  a  consul 
elect,  that  consul  who  has  declared  him  consul  ought  most  es- 
pecially to  be  the  first  mover  of  the  kindness  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, and  his  defender  from  danger. 

And  if,  as  is  accustomed  to  be  done  in  some  states,  an  advo- 
cate was  appointed  to  this  cause  by  the  public,  that  man  would 
above  all  others  be  assigned  to  one  invested  with  honors  as  his 
defender,  who  having  himself  enjoyed  the  same  honor,  brought 
to  his  advocacy  no  less  authority  than  ability.  But  if  those  who 
are  being  wafted  from  the  main  into  harbor  are  wont  with  the 
greatest  care  to  inform  those  who  are  sailing  out  of  harbor,  of 
the  character  of  storms,  and  pirates,  and  of  places,  because 

*  There  had  been  several  previous  laws  ment  for  ten  years;  and.  among  other 

against    bribery    and    corruption.      The  restrictions,    forbade   anyone   to   exhibit 

Lex   Acilia,   passed   B.C.   67.   imposed  a  gladiators  within  two  years  of  his  being 

fine    on    the   offending    party,    with    ex-  a  candidate,   unless  he  was  required  to 

elusion   from   the   Senate,   and   from   all  do   so   on   a   fixed   day    by    a   testator's 

public  offices.     The   Lex  Tullia.  passed  will, 
in    Cicero's    consulship,    added    banish- 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         71 

nature  prompts  us  to  favor  those  who  are  entering  on  the  same 
dangers  which  we  have  passed  through,  of  what  disposition 
ought  I  to  be,  who  after  having  been  much  tossed  about  am  now 
almost  in  sight  of  land,  toward  him  by  whom  I  see  the  greatest 
tempests  of  the  republic  about  to  be  encountered?  Wherefore, 
if  it  is  the  part  of  a  virtuous  consul  not  only  to  see  what  is  being 
done,  but  to  foresee  what  is  likely  to  happen,  I  will  show  in  an- 
other place  how  much  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  common  safety 
that  there  should  be  two  consuls  in  the  republic  on  the  first  of 
January.  And  if  that  be  the  case,  then  it  is  not  so  much  my 
duty  which  ought  to  summon  me  to  defend  the  fortunes  of  a 
man  who  is  my  friend,  as  the  republic  which  ought  to  invite  the 
consul  to  the  defence  of  the  common  safety. 

For  as  to  my  having  passed  a  law  concerning  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption, certainly  I  passed  it  so  as  not  to  abrogate  that  law 
which  I  have  long  since  made  for  myself  concerning  defending 
my  fellow-citizens  from  dangers.  If,  indeed,  I  confessed  that  a 
largess  had  been  distributed,  and  were  to  defend  it  as  having 
been  rightly  done,  I  should  be  acting  wrongly,  even  if  another 
had  passed  the  law;  but  when  I  am  saying  in  defence  that  noth- 
ing has  been  done  contrary  to  law,  then  what  reason  is  there 
that  my  having  passed  the  law  should  be  an  obstacle  to  my  un- 
dertaking the  defence? 

He  says  that  it  does  not  belong  to  the  same  severity  of  char- 
acter, to  have  banished  from  the  city  by  words,  and  almost  by 
express  command,  Catiline,  when  planning  the  destruction  of 
the  republic  within  its  very  walls,  and  now  to  speak  on  behalf  of 
Lucius  Murena.  But  I  have  always  willingly  acted  the  part  of 
lenity  and  clemency,  which  nature  itself  has  taught  me ;  but  I 
have  not  sought  the  character  of  severity  and  rigor;  but  I  have 
supported  it  when  imposed  upon  me  by  the  republic,  as  the 
dignity  of  this  empire  required  at  the  time  of  the  greatest  peril 
to  the  citizens.  But  if  then,  when  the  public  required  vigor  and 
severity,  I  overcame  my  nature,  and  was  as  severe  as  I  was  forced 
to  be,  not  as  I  wished  to  be;  now,  when  all  causes  invite  me  to 
mercy  and  humanity,  with  what  great  zeal  ought  I  to  obey  my 
nature  and  my  usual  habits?  and  concerning  my  duty  of  defend- 
ing, and  your  method  of  prosecuting,  perhaps  I  shall  have  again 
to  speak  in  another  part  of  my  speech. 

But,  O  judges,  the  complaint  of  Servius  Sulpicius,  a  most 


7a  CICERO 

wise  and  accomplish^!  man,  moved  me  no  less  than  the  a> 
sation  of  Cato;  for  he  said  that  he  was  exceedingly  and  most 
bitterly  vexed  that  1  had  forgotten  my  friendship  and  intimacy 
with  him,  and  was  defending  the  cause  of  Lucius  Murcna 
against  him.  I  wish,  O  judges,  to  satisfy  him,  and  to  make 
you  arbitrators  between  us.  For  as  it  i>  a  sad  tiling  to  be  ac-. 
.1  with  truth  in  a  case  of  friendship,  so,  even  if  you  be  falsely 
accused,  it  is  not  to  be  neglected.  I,  O  Servius  Sulpicius,  both 
allow  that  according  to  my  intimacy  with  you  I  did  owe  you  all 
my  zeal  and  activity  to  assist  you  in  your  canvass,  and  I  think  I 
displayed  it.  When  you  stood  for  the  consulship,  nothing  on 
my  part  was  wanting  to  you  which  could  have  been  expected 
either  from  a  friend  or  from  an  obliging  person,  or  from  a  con- 
sul. That  time  has  gone  by — the  case  is  changed.  I  think, 
and  am  persuaded,  that  I  owed  you  as  much  aid  as  ever  you  have 
ventured  to  require  of  me  against  the  advancement  of  Lucius 
Murena;  but  no  aid  at  all  against  his  safety.  Nor  does  it  fol- 
low, because  I  stood  by  you  when  you  were  a  candidate  for  the 
consulship,  that  on  that  account  I  ought  now  to  be  an  assistant 
to  you  in  the  same  way,  when  you  are  attacking  Murena  himself. 
And  this  is  not  only  not  praiseworthy — it  is  not  even  allowable, 
that  we  may  not  defend  even  those  who  are  most  entirely  strang- 
ers to  us  when  our  friends  accuse  them. 

But,  in  truth,  there  is,  O  judges,  between  Murena  and  myself 
an  ancient  and  great  friendship,  which  shall  not  be  overwhelmed 
in  a  capital  trial  by  Sefvius  Sulpicius,  merely  because  it  was 
overcome  by  superior  considerations  when  he  was  contesting 
an  honorable  office  with  that  same  person.  And  if  this  cause 
had  not  existed,  yet  the  dignity  of  the  man,  and  the  honorable 
nature  of  that  office  which  he  has  obtained,  would  have  branded 
me  with  the  deepest  reproach  of  pride  and  cruelty,  if  in  so  great 
a  danger  I  had  repudiated  the  cause  of  a  man  so  distinguished 
by  his  own  virtues  and  by  the  honors  paid  him  by  the  Roman 
people.  For  it  is  not  now  in  my  power — it  is  not  possible,  for 
me  to  shrink  from  devoting  my  labor  to  alleviate  the  dangers  of 
others.  For  when  such  rewards  have  been  given  me  for  this 
diligence  of  mine,  such  as  before  now  have  never  been  given  to 
anyone,  to  abandon  those  labors  by  which  I  have  earned  them, 
as  soon  as  I  have  received  them,  would  be  the  act  of  a  crafty  and 
ungrateful  man. 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE   OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         73 

If,  indeed,  I  may  rest  from  my  labors — if  you  advise  me  that 
I  can  do  so — if  no  reproach  of  indolence,  none  of  unworthy  arro- 
gance, none  of  inhumanity  is  incurred  by  so  doing,  in  good  truth 
I  will  willingly  rest.  But  if  flying  from  toil  convicts  me  of  lazi- 
ness— if  rejection  of  suppliants  convicts  me  of  arrogance — if 
neglect  of  my  friends  is  a  proof  of  worthlessness,  then,  above  all 
others,  this  cause  is  such  a  one  as  no  industrious,  or  merciful,  or 
obliging  man  can  abandon.  And  you  may  easily  form  your 
opinion  of  this  matter,  O  Servius,  from  your  own  pursuits.  For 
if  you  think  it  necessary  to  give  answers  to  even  the  adversaries 
of  your  friends  when  they  consult  you  about  law,  and  if  you 
think  it  shameful,  when  you  have  been  retained  as  an  advocate 
for  him  in  whose  cause  you  have  come  forward,  to  fail;  be  not 
so  unjust,  as,  when  your  springs  are  open  even  to  your  enemies, 
to  think  it  right  that  our  small  streams  should  be  closed  even 
against  our  friends. 

Forsooth,  if  my  intimacy  with  you  had  prevented  my  appear- 
ing in  this  cause,  and  if  the  same  thing  had  happened  to  Quintus 
Hortensius  and  Marcus  Crassus,  most  honorable  men,  and  to 
others  also  by  whom  I  know  that  your  affection  is  greatly  es- 
teemed, the  consul  elect  would  have  had  no  defender  in  that  city 
in  which  our  ancestors  intended  that  even  the  lowest  of  the  peo- 
ple should  never  want  an  advocate.  But  I,  O  judges,  should 
think  myself  wicked  if  I  had  failed  my  friend — cruel  if  I  had 
failed  one  in  distress — arrogant  if  I  had  failed  the  consul.  So 
that  what  ought  to  be  given  to  friendship  shall  be  abundantly 
given  by  me;  so  that  I  will  deal  with  you,  O  Servius,  as  if  my 
brother,  who  is  the  dearest  of  all  men  to  me,  stood  in  your  place. 
What  ought  to  be  given  to  duty,  to  good  faith,  to  religion,  that 
I  will  so  regulate  as  to  recollect  that  I  am  speaking  contrary  to 
the  wish  of  one  friend  to  defend  another  friend  from  danger. 

I  understand,  O  judges,  that  this  whole  accusation  is  divided 
into  three  parts ;  and  that  one  of  them  refers  to  finding  fault  with 
Murena's  habits  of  life,  another  to  his  contest  for  the  dignity, 
and  a  third  to  charges  of  bribery  and  corruption.  And  of  these 
three  divisions,  that  first,  which  ought  to  have  been  the  weighti- 
est of  all,  was  so  weak  and  trifling,  that  it  was  rather  some  gen- 
eral rule  of  accusing,  than  any  real  occasion  for  finding  fault, 
which  prompted  them  to  say  anything  about  the  way  of  life  of 
Lucius  Murena.  For  Asia  has  been  mentioned  as  a  reproach 


74 


CICERO 


to  him,  which  was  not  sought  by  him  for  the  sake  of  pleasure 
and  luxury,  but  was  traversed  by  him  in  the  performance  of 
military  labors;  but  if  he  while  a  young  man  had  not  served 
under  his  father  \\hen  general,  he  would  have  seemed  either  to 
have  been  afraid  of  the  enemy,  or  of  the  command  of  his  father, 
or  else  to  have  been  repudiated  by  his  father.  Shall  we  say  that, 
when  all  the  sons  who  wear  the  praetexta'  are  accustomed  to  sit 
on  the  chariot  of  those  who  are  celebrating  a  triumph,  this  man 
ought  to  have  shunned  adorning  the  triumph  of  his  father  with 
military  gifts,  so  as  almost  to  share  his  father's  triumph  for  ex- 
ploits which  they  had  performed  in  common? 

But  this  man,  O  judges,  both  was  in  Asia  and  was  a  great  as- 
sistance to  that  bravest  of  men,  his  own  father,  in  his  dangers,  a 
comfort  to  him  in  his  labors,  a  source  of  congratulation  to  him 
in  his  victory.  And  if  Asia  does  carry  with  it  a  suspicion  of 
luxury,  surely  it  is  a  praiseworthy  thing,  not  never  to  have  seen 
Asia,  but  to  have  lived  temperately  in  Asia.  So  that  the  name 
of  Asia  should  not  have  been  objected  to  Lucius  Murena,  a 
country  whence  renown  was  derived  for  his  family,  lasting 
recollection  for  his  race,  honor  and  glory  for  his  name,  but  some 
crime  or  disgrace,  either  incurred  in  Asia,  or  brought  home 
from  Asia.  But  to  have  served  campaigns  in  that  war  which 
was  not  only  the  greatest  but  the  only  war  which  the  Roman 
people  was  waging  at  that  time,  is  a  proof  of  valor;  to  have 
served  most  willingly  under  his  father,  who  was  commander-in- 
chief,  is  a  proof  of  piety;  that  the  end  of  his  campaign  was  the 
victory  and  triumph  of  his  father,  is  a  proof  of  good  fortune. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  room  in  these  matters  for  speaking  ill  of 
him,  because  praise  takes  up  the  whole  room. 

Cato  calls  Lucius  Murena  a  dancer.  If  this  be  imputed  to 
him  truly,  it  is  the  reproach  of  a  violent  accuser;  but  if  fal- 
it  is  the  abuse  of  a  scurrilous  railer.  Wherefore,  as  you  are  a 
person  of  such  influence,  you  ought  not,  O  Marcus  Cato,  to  pick 
up  abusive  expressions  out  of  the  streets,  or  out  of  some  quarrel 
of  buffoons;  you  ought  not  rashly  to  call  a  consul  of  the  Roman 
people  a  dancer;  but  to  consider  with  what  other  vices  besides 
that  man  must  be  tainted  to  whom  that  can  with  truth  be  im- 
puted. For  no  man,  one  may  almost  say,  ever  dances  when 

» The  toga  prxtexta  was  a  robe  bor-        magistrates,    and   by   freeborn   children 
dcred  with   purple,  worn  by  the  higher        till  they  arrived  at  the  age  of  manhood 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA         75 

sober,  unless  perhaps  he  be  a  madman,  nor  in  solitude,  nor  in  a 
moderate  and  sober  party;  dancing  is  the  last  companion  of 
prolonged  feasting,  of  luxurious  situation,  and  of  many  refine- 
ments. You  charge  me  with  that  which  must  necessarily  be  the 
last  of  all  vices,  you  say  nothing  of  those  things  without  which 
this  vice  absolutely  cannot  exist;  no  shameless  feasting,  no 
improper  love,  no  carousing,  no  lust,  no  extravagance  is  al- 
leged; and  when  those  things  which  have  the  name  of  pleasure, 
and  which  are  vicious,  are  not  found,  do  you  think  that  you  will 
find  the  shadow  of  luxury  in  that  man  in  whom  you  cannot  find 
the  luxury  itself? 

Can  nothing,  therefore,  be  said  against  the  life  of  Lucius 
Murena?  Absolutely  nothing,  I  say,  O  judges.  The  consul 
elect  is  defended  by  me  on  this  ground,  that  no  fraud  of  his,  no 
avarice,  no  perfidy,  no  cruelty,  no  wanton  word  can  be  alleged 
against  him  in  his  whole  life.  It  is  well.  The  foundations  of 
the  defence  are  laid ;  for  we  are  not  as  yet  defending  this  virtuous 
and  upright  man  with  my  own  panegyric,  which  I  will  employ 
presently,  but  almost  by  the  confession  of  his  adversaries. 

And  now  that  this  is  settled,  the  approach  to  the  contest  for 
this  dignity,  which  was  the  second  part  of  the  accusation,  is  more 
easy  to  me.  I  see  that  there  is  in  you,  O  Servius  Sulpicius,  the 
greatest  dignity  of  birth,  of  integrity,  of  industry,  and  of  all  the 
other  accomplishments  which  a  man  ought  to  rely  on  when  he 
offers  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  consulship.  I  know  that 
all  those  qualities  are  equal  in  Lucius  Murena,  and  so  equal  that 
he  can  neither  be  surpassed  in  worth  by  you,  nor  can  himself 
surpass  you  in  worth.  You  have  spoken  slightingly  of  the 
family  of  Lucius  Murena,  you  have  extolled  your  own;  but  if 
you  dwell  on  this  topic  so  as  to  allow  no  one  to  be  considered  as 
born  of  a  good  family,  unless  he  be  a  patrician,  you  will  compel 
the  common  people  again  to  secede  to  the  Aventine  Hill.4  But 
if  there  are  honorable  and  considerable  families  among  the 
plebeians — both  the  great-grandfather  of  Lucius  Murena,  and 
his  grandfather,  were  praetors;  and  his  father,  when  he  had  tri- 
umphed most  splendidly  and  honorably  for  exploits  performed 
in  his  praetorship,  left  the  steps  towards  the  acquisition  of  the 

*  This   refers   to    the   time   of    Appius  were  joined  by  great  part  of  the  plebs. 

the  decemvir,  when  the  soldiers,  at  the  demanding  the  abolition  of  the  dccem- 

call    of    Virginius,    after    the    death    of  virate. 
Virginia,    occupied    the    Aventine,    and 


7  6  CICERO 

consulship  more  easy,  because  that  honor  which  was  due  to  the 
father  was  demanded  by  the  son. 

But  your  nobility,  O  Servius  Sulpicius,  although  it  is  most 
eminent,  yet  it  is  known  rather  to  men  versed  in  literature  and 
history,  but  not  much  so  to  the  people  and  to  the  voters.  : 
your  father  was  in  the  rank  of  the  knights,  your  grandfather  was 
renowned  for  no  conspicuous  action.  So  that  the  recollection 
of  your  nobility  is  to  be  extracted  not  from  the  modern  conversa- 
tion of  men,  but  from  the  antiquity  of  annals.  So  that  I  also  am 
accustomed  to  class  you  in  our  number,  because  you  by  your 
own  virtue  and  industry,  though  you  are  the  son  of  a  Roman 
knight,  have  yet  earned  the  being  considered  worthy  of  the  very 
highest  advancement.  Nor  did  it  ever  seem  to  me  that  there  was 
less  virtue  in  Ouintus  Pompeius,  a  new  man  and  a  most  br 
man,  than  in  that  most  high-born  man,  Marcus  ^milius.  In- 
deed, it  is  a  proof  of  the  same  spirit  and  genius,  to  hand  down 
to  his  posterity,  as  Pompeius  did,  an  honorable  name,  which  he 
had  not  received  from  his  ancestors ;  and,  as  Scaurus  did,  to  re- 
new the  recollection  of  his  family  which  was  almost  extinct. 

Although  I  now  thought,  O  judges,  that  it  had  been  brought 
about  by  my  labors,  that  a  want  of  nobleness  of  birth  should  not 
be  objected  to  many  brave  men,  who  were  neglected,  though 
men  were  praising  not  only  the  Curii,  the  Catos,  the  Pompeii, 
those  ancient  new  but  most  distinguished  men,  but  also,  these 
more  modern  new  men,  the  Marii,  and  Didii,  and  Coelii.  But 
when  I,  after  so  great  an  interval,  had  broken  down  those  bar- 
riers of  nobility,  so  that  entrance  to  the  consulship  should  here- 
after be  opened,  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors,  not  more 
to  high  birth  than  to  virtue,  I  did  not  think  when  a  consul  elect 
of  an  ancient  and  illustrious  family  was  being  defended  by  the 
son  of  a  Roman  knight,  himself  a  consul,  that  the  accusers 
would  say  anything  about  newness  of  family.  In  truth,  it  hap- 
pened to  me  myself  to  stand  against  two  patricians,  one  a  most 
worthless  and  audacious  man,  the  other  a  most  modest  and  vir- 
tuous one;  yet  I  surpassed  Catiline  in  worth,  Galba  in  popu- 
larity. But  if  that  ought  to  have  been  imputed  as  a  crime  to  a 
new  man,  forsooth,  I  should  have  wanted  neither  enemies  nor 
detractors. 

Let  us,  therefore,  give  up  saying  anything  about  birth,  the 
dignity  of  which  is  great  in  both  the  candidates ;  let  us  look  at 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE   OF  LUCIUS  MURENA         77 

the  other  points.  He  stood  for  the  quaestorship  at  the  same 
time  with  me,  and  I  was  appointed  first.  We  need  not  answer 
every  point;  for  it  cannot  escape  the  observation  of  any  one  of 
you,  when  many  men  are  appointed  equal  in  dignity ;  but  only 
one  can  obtain  the  first  place,  that  the  order  of  the  dignity  and 
of  the  declaration  of  it  are  not  the  same,  because  the  declaration 
has  degrees,  but  the  dignity  of  all  is  usually  the  same.  But  the 
quaestorship  of  each  was  given  them  by  almost  an  equal  decision 
of  the  lots:  the  one  had  by  the  Titian  law  a  quiet  and  orderly 
province;  you  had  that  one  of  Ostia,  at  the  name  of  which,  when 
the  quaestors  distribute  the  provinces  by  lot,  a  shout  is  raised — 
a  province  not  so  much  pleasant  and  illustrious  as  troublesome 
and  vexatious.  The  name  of  each  was  together  in  the  quaestor- 
ship.  For  the  drawing  of  the  lots  gave  you  no  field  on  which 
your  virtue  could  display  itself  and  make  itself  known. 

The  remaining  space  of  time  is  dedicated  to  the  contest.  It 
was  employed  by  each  in  a  very  dissimilar  fashion.  Servius 
adopted  the  civil  service,  full  of  anxiety  and  annoyance,  of  an- 
swering, writing,  cautioning;  he  learned  the  civil  law;  he 
worked  e.arly  and  late,  Ire  toiled,  he  was  visible  to  everyone,  he 
endured  the  folly  of  crowds,  he  tolerated  their  arrogance,  he  bore 
all  sorts  of  difficulties,  he  lived  at  the  will  of  others,  not  at  his 
own.  It  is  a  great  credit,  a  thing  pleasing  to  men,  for  one  man 
to  labor  hard  in  that  science  which  will  profit  many. 

What  has  Murena  been  doing  in  the  mean  time?  He  was 
lieutenant  to  Lucius  Lucullus,  a  very  brave  and  wise  man,  and 
a  consummate  general;  and  in  this  post  he  commanded  an 
army,  he  fought  a  battle,  he  engaged  the  enemy,  he  routed  nu- 
merous forces  of  the  enemy,  he  took  several  cities,  some  by 
storm,  some  by  blockade.  He  traversed  that  populous  and 
luxurious  Asia  you  speak  of,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  leave  in  it 
no  trace  either  of  his  avarice  or  of  his  luxury;  in  a  most  impor- 
tant war  he  so  behaved  himself  that  he  performed  many  glori- 
ous exploits  without  the  commander-in-chief ;  but  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  did  nothing  without  him.  And  all  these 
things,  although  I  am  speaking  in  the  presence  of  Lucius  Lu- 
cullus, yet  that  we  may  not  appear  to  have  a  license  of  inven- 
tion granted  us  by  him  on  account  of  the  danger  we  are  in,  we 
are  borne  witness  to  in  the  public  despatches ;  in  which  Lucius 
Lucullus  gives  him  such  praise  as  no  ambitious  nor  envious 


;8  CICERO 

commander-in-chief  could  have  given  another  while  divic 
with  him  the  credit  of  his  e.\i>! 

There  is  in  each  of  the  rivals  the  greatest  honesty,  the  greatest 
worth;  which  1.  if  Servius  will  allow  me,  will  place  in  equal  and 
in  the  same  panegyric.  But  he  will  not  let  me;  he  discusses 
the  military  question;  he  attacks  the  whole  of  his  services  as 
lieutenant;  he  thinks  the  consulship  is  an  office  requiring  dili- 
gence and  all  this  daily  labor.  "  I  lave  you  been,"  says  he,  "  so 
many  years  with  the  army?  you  can  never  have  been  near  the 
forum.  Have  you  been  away  so  long?  and  then,  when  after  a 
long  interval  you  arrive,  will  you  contend  in  dignity  with  those 
who  have  made  their  abode  in  the  forum?  "  First  of  all,  as  to 
that  assiduity  of  ours,  O  Servius,  you  know  not  what  disgust, 
what  satiety,  it  sometimes  causes  men;  it  was,  indeed,  exceed- 
ingly advantageous  for  me  myself  that  my  influence  was  in  the 
sight  of  all  men ;  but  I  overcame  the  weariness  of  me  by  my  own 
great  labor;  and  you,  perhaps,  have  done  the  same  thing,  hut 
yet  a  regret  at  our  absence  would  have  been  no  injury  to  either 
of  us. 

But,  to  say  no  more  of  this,  and  to  return  to  the  contest  of 
studies  and  pursuits;  how  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  glory  of 
military  exploits  contributes  more  dignity  to  aid  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  consulship,  than  renown  for  skill  in  civil  law?  Do 
you  wake  before  the  night  is  over  in  order  to  give  answers  to 
those  who  consult  you?  He  has  done  so  in  order  to  arrive  be- 
times with  his  army  at  the  place  to  which  he  is  marching.  The 
cock-crow  wakens  you,  but  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  rouses 
him ;  you  conduct  an  action ;  he  is  marshalling  an  army :  you 
take  care  lest  your  clients  should  be  convicted;  he  lest  his  cities 
or  camp  be  taken.  He  occupies  posts,  and  exercises  skill  to  re- 
pel the  troops  of  the  enemy,  you  to  keep  out  the  rain;  he  is 
practised  in  extending  the  boundaries  of  the  empire,  you  in  gov- 
erning the  present  territories;  and  in  short,  for  I  must  say  what 
I  think,  pre-eminence  in  military  skill  excels  all  other  virtues. 

It  is  this  which  has  procured  its  name  for  the  Roman  people; 
it  is  this  which  has  procured  eternal  glory  for  this  city;  it  is  this 
which  has  compelled  the  whole  world  to  submit  to  our  do- 
minion ;  all  domestic  affairs,  all  these  illustrious  pursuits  of  ours, 
and  our  forensic  renown,  and  our  industry,  are  safe  under  the 
guardianship  and  protection  of  military  valor.  As  soon  as  the 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         79 

first  suspicion  of  disturbance  is  heard  of,  in  a  moment  our  arts 
have  not  a  word  to  say  for  themselves. 

And  since  you  seem  to  me  to  embrace  that  knowledge  of  the 
law  which  you  have,  as  if  it  were  a  darling  daughter,  I  will  not 
permit  you  to  lie  under  such  a  mistake  as  to  think  that,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  which  you  have  so  thoroughly  learned,  anything 
very  pre-eminent.  For  your  other  virtues  of  continence,  of 
gravity,  of  justice,  of  good  faith,  and  all  other  good  qualities,  I 
have  always  considered  you  very  worthy  of  the  consulship  and 
of  all  honor ;  but  as  for  your  having  learned  civil  law,  I  will  not 
say  you  have  wasted  your  pains,  but  I  will  say  that  there  is  no 
way  made  to  lead  to  the  consulship  by  that  profession;  for  all 
arts  which  can  concilitate  for  us  the  good-will  of  the  Roman 
people  ought  to  possess  both  an  admirable  dignity,  and  a  very 
delightful  utility. 

The  highest  dignity  is  in  those  men  who  excel  in  military 
glory.  For  all  things  which  are  in  the  empire  and  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  state,  are  supposed  to  be  defended  and  strength- 
ened by  them.  There  is  also  the  greatest  usefulness  in  them, 
since  it  is  by  their  wisdom  and  their  danger  that  we  can  enjoy 
both  the  republic  and  also  our  own  private  possessions.  The 
power  of  eloquence  also  is  no  doubt  valuable  and  full  of  dignity, 
and  it  has  often  been  of  influence  in  the  election  of  a  consul,  to 
be  able  by  wisdom  and  oratory  to  sway  the  minds  of  the  Senate 
and  the  people,  and  those  who  decide  on  affairs.  A  consul  is 
required  who  may  be  able  sometimes  to  repress  the  madness  of 
the  tribunes,  who  may  be  able  to  bend  the  excited  populace,  who 
may  resist  corruption.  It  is  not  strange,  if,  on  account  of  this 
faculty,  even  men  who  were  not  nobly  born  have  often  obtained 
the  consulship;  especially  when  this  same  quality  procures  a 
man  great  gratitude,  and  the  firmest  friendship,  and  the  greatest 
zeal  in  his  behalf;  but  of  all  this  there  is  nothing,  O  Sulpicius,  in 
your  profession. 

First  of  all,  what  dignity  can  there  be  in  so  limited  a  science? 
For  they  are  but  small  matters,  conversant  chiefly  about  single 
letters  and  punctuation  between  words.  Secondly,  if  in  the 
time  of  our  ancestors  there  was  any  inclination  to  marvel  at  that 
study  of  yours,  now  that  all  your  mysteries  are  revealed,  it  is 
wholly  despised  and  disregarded.  At  one  time  few  men  knew 
whether  a  thing  might  be  lawfully  done  or  not;  for  men  ordi- 


8o  CICERO 

narily  had  no  records;  those  were  possessed  of  great  power  who 
were  consulted,  so  that  c\  for  consultation  were  begged 

of  them  beforehand,  as  from  the  Chaldean  astrologers.  A  cer- 
tain notary  was  found,  by  name  Cnarus  Mavius,  who  could  de- 
ceive '  the  most  wary,  and  who  set  the  people  records  to  be 
learned  by  heart  each  day,  and  who  pilfered  their  own  learning 
from  the  profoundest  lawyers.  So  they,  being  angry  because 
they  were  afraid,  lest,  when  their  daily  course  of  action  was  di- 
vulged and  understood,  people  would  be  able  to  proceed  by  law 
without  their  assistance,  adopted  a  sort  of  cipher,  in  order  to 
make  their  presence  necessary  in  every  cause. 

When  this  might  have  been  well  transacted  thus — "  The 
Sabine  farm  is  mine."  "  No;  it  is  mine;"  then  a  trial;  they 
would  not  have  it  so.  "  The  farm,"  says  he,  "  which  is  in  the 
territory  which  is  called  Sabine:  "  verbose  enough — well,  what 
next?  "  That  farm,  I  say,  is  mine  according  to  the  rights  of 
Roman  citizens."  What  then?  "and  therefore  I  summon  you 
according  to  law,  seizing  you  by  the  hand." 

The  man  of  whom  the  field  was  demanded  did  not  know  how 
to  answer  one  who  was  so  talkatively  litigious.  The  same 
lawyer  goes  across,  like  a  Latin  flute-player — says  he,  "  In  the 
place  from  whence  you  summoned  me  having  seized  me  by  the 
hand,  from  thence  I  recall  you  there."  In  the  mean  time,  as  to 
the  praetor,  lest  he  should  think  himself  a  fine  fellow  and  a 
fortunate  one,  and  himself  say  something  of  his  own  accord,  a 
form  of  words  is  composed  for  him  also,  absurd  in  other  points, 
and  especially  in  this:  "Each  of  them  being  alive  and  being 
present,  I  say  that  that  is  the  way."  "  Enter  on  the  way." 
That  wise  man  was  at  hand  who  was  to  show  them  the  way. 
"  Return  on  your  path."  They  returned  with  the  same  guide. 
These  things,  I  may  well  suppose,  appeared  ridiculous  to  full- 
grown  men ;  that  men  when  they  have  stood  rightly  and  in  their 
proper  place  should  be  ordered  to  depart,  in  order  that  they 
might  immediately  return  again  to  the  place  they  had  left. 
Everything  was  tainted  with  the  same  childish  folly.  "  When 
I  behold  you  in  the  power  of  the  law."  And  this:  "  But  do  you 
say  this  who  claim  the  right?  "  And  while  all  this  was  made  a 
mystery  of,  they  who  had  the  key  to  the  mystery  were  neces- 

*  The  Latin  strictly  is,  "  pierce  the  eyes  of  ravens."  It  was  a  proverbial 
expression. 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         81 

sarily  sought  after  by  men;  but  as  soon  as  these  things  were 
revealed,  and  were  bandied  about  and  sifted  in  men's  hands, 
they  were  found  to  be  thoroughly  destitute  of  wisdom,  but  very 
full  of  fraud  and  folly. 

For  though  many  things  have  been  excellently  settled  by  the 
laws,  yet  most  of  them  have  been  depraved  and  corrupted  by  the 
genius  of  the  lawyers.  Our  ancestors  determined  that  all 
women,  on  account  of  the  inferiority  of  their  understanding, 
should  be  under  the  protection  of  trustees.  These  men  have 
found  out  classes  of  trustees,  whose  power  is  subordinate  to  that 
of  the  women.  The  one  party  did  not  wish  the  domestic  sacri- 
fices to  be  abolished  in  families;  by  the  ingenuity  of  the  others 
old  men  were  found  to  marry  by  the  form  called  coemptio,0  for 
the  sake  of  getting  rid  of  these  sacred  ceremonies.  Lastly,  in 
every  part  of  the  civil  law  they  neglected  equity  itself,  but  ad- 
hered to  the  letter  of  the  law ;  as  for  instance,  because  in  some- 
body's books  they  found  the  name  of  Caia,  they  thought  that 
all  the  women  who  had  married  by  coemptio  were  called  Caias. 
And  that  often  appears  marvellous  to  me,  that  so  many  men  of 
such  ability  should  now  for  so  many  years  have  been  unable  to 
decide  whether  the  proper  expressions  to  use  be  the  day  after 
to-morrow  or  the  third  day,  a  judge  or  an  arbiter,  a  cause  or  a 
proceeding. 

Therefore,  as  I  said  before,  the  dignity  of  a  consul  has  never 
been  consistent  with  that  science;  being  one  consisting  wholly 
of  fictitious  and  imaginary  formulas.  And  its  right  to  public 
gratitude  was  even  much  smaller.  For  that  which  is  open  to 
everyone,  and  which  is  equally  accessible  to  me  and  to  my  ad- 
versary, cannot  be  considered  as  entitled  to  any  gratitude.  And 
therefore  you  have  now  not  only  lost  the  hope  of  conferring  a 
favor,  but  even  the  compliment  that  used  to  be  paid  to  you  by 
men  asking  your  permission  to  consult  you.  No  one  can  be 
considered  wise  on  account  of  his  proficiency  in  that  knowledge 
which  is  neither  of  any  use  at  all  out  of  Rome,  nor  at  Rome 
either  during  the  vacations.  Nor  has  anyone  any  right  to  be 
considered  skilful  in  law,  because  there  cannot  be  any  differ- 
ence between  men  in  a  branch  of  knowledge  with  which  they 

_•  Coemptio  was  "a  ceremony  *of  mar-  "Coemptio  was  effected  by  mancipatio, 
riage  consisting  in  a  mock  sale,  where-  and  consequently  the  wife  was  in  man- 
by  the  bride  and  bridegroom  sold  them-  cipio."— Smith,  Dictionary  of  Antiqui- 
selves  to  each  other."  Riddle  in  voce.  ties,  p.  603,  sec.  v.,  v.  Marriage  (Roman). 


8*  CICERO 

all  acquainted.  And  a  matter  is  n<>t  tlx.n-ht  the  more  diffi- 
cult for  being  contained  in  a  very  small  number  of  very  intel- 
ligible documents.  Therefore,  if  you  excite  my  anger,  though 
I  am  excessively  busy,  in  three  days  I  will  profess  myself  a 
lawyer.  In  truth,  all  that  need  be  said  about  the  written  law  is 
contained  in  written  books;  nor  is  there  anything  written  with 
such  precise  accuracy,  that  I  cannot  add  to  the  formula,  "  which 
is  the  matter  at  present  in  dispute."  If  you  answer  what  you 
ought,  you  will  seem  to  have  made  the  same  answer  as  Serv 
if  you  make  any  other  reply,  you  will  seem  to  be  acquainted  with 
and  to  know  how  to  handle  disputed  points. 

Wherefore,  not  only  is  the  military  glory  which  you  slight  to 
be  preferred  to  your  formulas  and  legal  pleas;  but  even  the 
habit  of  speaking  is  far  superior,  as  regards  the  attainment  of 
honors,  to  the  profession  to  the  practice  of  which  you  devote 
yourself.  And  therefore  many  men  appear  to  me  to  have  pre- 
ferred this  at  first;  but  afterward,  being  unable  to  attain  emi- 
nence in  this  profession,  they  have  descended  to  the  other.  Just 
as  men  say,  when  talking  of  Greek  practitioners,  that  those  men 
are  flute-players  who  cannot  become  harp-players,  so  we  see 
some  men,  who  have  not  been  able  to  make  orators,  turn  to  the 
study  of  the  law.  There  is  great  labor  in  the  practice  of  oratory. 
It  is  an  important  business,  one  of  great  dignity,  and  of  most 
exceeding  influence.  In  truth,  from  you  lawyers  men  seek 
some  degree  of  advantage;  but  from  those  who  are  orators  they 
seek  actual  safety.  In  the  next  place,  your  replies  and  your  de- 
cisions are  constantly  overturned  by  eloquence,  and  cannot  be 
made  firm  except  by  the  advocacy  of  the  orator;  in  which  if  I 
had  made  any  great  proficiency  myself,  I  should  be  more  spar- 
ing while  speaking  in  its  praise;  but  at  present  I  am  saying 
nothing  about  myself,  but  only  about  those  men  who  either  are 
or  have  been  great  in  oratory. 

There  are  two  occupations  which  can  place  men  in  the  highest 
rank  of  dignity;  one,  that  of  a  general,  the  other,  that  of  an  ac- 
complished orator.  For  by  the  latter  the  ornaments  of  peace 
are  preserved,  by  the  former  the  dangers  of  war  are  repelled. 
But  the  other  virtues  are  of  great  importance  from  their  own  in- 
trinsic excellence,  such  as  justice,  good  faith,  modesty,  temper- 
ance; and  in  these,  O  Servius,  all  men  know  that  you  are  very 
eminent.  But  at  present  I  am  speaking  of  those  pursuits  calcu- 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE   OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         83 

lated  to  aid  men  in  the  attainment  of  honors,  and  not  about  the 
intrinsic  excellency  of  each  pursuit.  For  all  those  occupations 
are  dashed  out  of  our  hands  at  once,  the  moment  the  slightest 
new  commotion  begins  to  have  a  warlike  sound.  In  truth,  as 
an  ingenious  poet  and  a  very  admirable  author  says,  the  mo- 
ment there  is  a  mention  of  battle,  "  away  is  driven  "  not  only 
your  grandiloquent  pretences  to  prudence,  but  even  that  mis- 
tress of  all  things,  "  wisdom.  Everything  is  done  by  violence. 
The  orator,"  not  only  he  who  is  troublesome  in  speaking,  and 
garrulous,  but  even  "  the  good  orator  is  despised ;  the  horrid 
soldier  is  loved."  But  as  for  your  profession,  that  is  trampled 
under  foot ;  "  men  seek  their  rights  not  by  law,  but  hand  to 
hand  by  the  sword,"  says  he. 

And  if  that  be  the  case,  then  I  think,  O  Sulpicius,  the  forum 
must  yield  to  the  camp ;  peace  must  yield  to  war,  the  pen  to  the 
sword,  and  the  shade  to  the  sun.  That,  in  fact,  must  be  the  first 
thing  in  the  city,  by  means  of  which  the  city  itself  is  the  first  of 
all  cities.  But  Cato  is  busy  proving  that  we  are  making  too 
much  of  all  these  things  in  our  speech;  and  that  we  have  for- 
gotten that  that  Mithridatic  War  was  carried  on  against  nothing 
better  than  women.  However,  my  opinion  is  very  different,  O 
judges;  and  I  will  say  a  little  on  that  subject;  for  my  cause  does 
not  depend  on  that. 

For  if  all  the  wars  which  we  have  carried  on  against  the 
Greeks  are  to  be  despised,  then  let  the  triumph  of  Marcus  Curi- 
us  over  King  Pyrrhus  be  derided;  and  that  of  Titus  Flamininus 
over  Philip ;  and  that  of  Marcus  Fulvius  over  the  ^Etolians ;  and 
that  of  Lucius  Paullus  over  King  Perses ;  and  that  of  Quintus 
Metellus  over  the  false  Philip;  and  that  of  Lucius  Mummius 
over  the  Corinthians.  But,  if  all  these  wars  were  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  if  our  victories  in  them  were  most  acceptable, 
then  why  are  the  Asiatic  nations  and  that  Asiatic  enemy  de- 
spised by  you  ?  But,  from  our  records  of  ancient  deeds,  I  see 
that  the  Roman  people  carried  on  a  most  important  war 'with 
Antiochus;  the  conqueror  in  which  war,  Lucius  Scipio,  who 
had  already  gained  great  glory  when  acting  in  conjunction  with 
his  brother  Publius,  assumed  the  same  honor  himself  by  taking 
a  surname  from  Asia,  as  his  brother  did,  who,  having  subdued 
Africa,  paraded  his  conquest  by  the  assumption  of  the  name  of 
Africanus.  And  in  that  war  the  renown  of  your  ancestor  Mar- 


84  CICERO 

cus  Cato  was  very  conspicuous ;  but  he,  if  he  was,  as  I  make  no 
doubt  that  he  was,  a  man  of  the  same  character  as  I  see  that  you 
are,  would  never  have  gone  to  that  war,  if  he  had  thought  that 
it  was  only  going  to  be  a  war  against  women.  Nor  would  the 
Senate  have  prevailed  on  Publius  . \iricanus  to  go  as  lieutenant 
to  his  brother,  when  he  himself,  a  little  while  before,  having 
forced  Hannibal  out  of  Italy,  having  driven  him  out  of  At': 
and  having  crushed  the  power  of  Carthage,  had  delivered  the 
republic  from  the  greatest  dangers,  if  that  war  had  not  been 
considered  an  important  and  formidable  war. 

But  if  you  diligently  consider  what  the  power  of  Mithridates 
was,  and  what  his  exploits  were,  and  what  sort  of  a  man  he 
himself,  you  will  in  truth  prefer  this  king  to  all  the  kings  with 
whom  the  Roman  people  has  ever  waged  war ;  a  man  whom 
Lucius  Sylla — not  a  very  inexperienced  general,  to  say  the 
least  of  it — at  the  head  of  a  numerous  and  powerful  army,  after 
a  severe  battle,  allowed  to  depart,  having  made  peace  with  him, 
though  he  had  overrun  all  Asia  with  war;  whom  Lucius  Mu- 
rena,  my  client's  father,  after  having  warred  against  him  with 
the  greatest  vigor  and  vigilance,  left  greatly  checked  indeed, 
but  not  overwhelmed :  a  king,  who  having  taken  several  years 
to  perfect  his  system  and  to  strengthen  his  warlike  resources, 
became  so  powerful  and  enterprising  that  he  thought  himself 
able  to  unite  the  Atlantic  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  to  combine  the 
forces  of  Sertorius  with  his  own.  And  when  two  consuls  had 
been  sent  to  that  war,  with  the  view  of  one  pursuing  Mithri- 
dates, and  the  other  protecting  Bithynia,  the  disasters  which  be- 
fell one  of  them  by  land  and  sea  greatly  increased  the  power 
and  reputation  of  the  king.  But  the  exploits  of  Lucius  Lucul- 
lus  were  such  that  it  is  impossible  to  mention  any  war  which 
was  more  important,  or  in  which  greater  abilities  and  valor 
were  displayed.  For  when  the  violence  of  the  entire  war  had 
broken  against  the  walls  of  Cyzicus,  and  as  Mithridates  thought 
that  he  should  find  that  the  city  the  door  of  Asia,  and  that,  if  that 
were  once  broken  down  and  forced,  the  whole  province  would 
be  open  to  him,  everything  was  so  managed  by  Lucullus  that 
the  city  of  our  most  faithful  allies  was  defended,  and  all  the 
forces  of  the  king  were  wasted  away  by  the  length  of  the  siege. 
What  more  need  I  say?  Do  you  think  that  that  naval  battle 
at  Tenedos,  when  the  enemy's  fleet  were  hastening  on  with 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA         85 

rapid  course  and  under  most  eager  admirals  toward  Italy,  full 
of  hope  and  courage,  was  a  trifling  engagement — an  insignifi- 
cant contest  ?  I  will  say  nothing  of  battles ;  I  pass  over  the 
sieges  of  towns.  Being  at  length  expelled  from  his  kingdom, 
still  his  wisdom  and  his  influence  were  so  great,  that,  combining 
his  forces  with  those  of  the  king  of  Armenia,  he  reappeared  with 
new  armies  and  new  resources  of  every  kind. 

And  if  it  were  my  business  now  to  speak  of  the  achievements 
of  our  army  and  of  our  general,  I  might  mention  many  most 
important  battles.  But  that  is  not  the  present  question.  This 
I  do  say :  If  this  war,  and  this  enemy — if  that  king  was  a  proper 
object  for  contempt,  the  Senate  and  Roman  people  would  not 
have  thought  it  one  to  be  undertaken  with  such  care,  nor  would 
they  have  carried  it  on  for  so  many  years,  nor  would  the  glory 
of  Lucullus  be  as  great  as  it  is.  Nor  would  the  Roman  people 
have  intrusted  the  care  of  putting  a  finishing  stroke  to  it  to 
Cnaeus  Pompeius ;  though  of  all  his  battles,  numberless  as  they 
are,  that  appears  to  me  to  have  been  the  most  desperate  and  to 
have  been  maintained  on  both  sides  with  the  greatest  vigor, 
which  he  'fought  against  the  king.  And  when  Mithridates  had 
escaped  from  that  battle,  and  had  fled  to  the  Bosporus,  a  place 
which  no  army  could  approach,  still,  'even  in  the  extremity  of 
his  fortunes,  and  as  a  fugitive,  he  retained  the  name  of  a  king. 
Therefore,  Pompeius  himself,  having  taken  possession  of  his 
kingdom,  having  driven  the  enemy  away  from  all  his  coasts, 
and  from  all  his  usual  places  of  resort,  still  thought  that  so  much 
depended  on  his  single  life,  that  though,  by  his  victory,  he  had 
got  possession  of  everything  which  he  had  possessed,  or  had 
approached,  or  even  had  hoped  for,  still  he  did  not  think  the  war 
entirely  over  till  he  drove  him  from  life  also.  And  do  you,  O 
Cato,  think  lightly  of  this  man  as  an  enemy,  when  so  many  gen- 
erals warred  against  him  for  so  many  years,  with  so  long  a  series 
of  battles  ?  when,  though  driven  out  and  expelled  from  his  king- 
dom, his  life  was  still  thought  of  such  importance,  that  it  was  not 
till  the  news  arrived  of  his  death,  that  we  thought  the  war  over? 
We  then  say  in  defence  of  Lucius  Murena,  that  as  a  lieutenant 
in  this  war  he  approved  himself  a  man  of  the  greatest  courage, 
of  singular  military  skill,  and  of  the  greatest  perseverance ;  and 
that  all  his  conduct  at  that  time  gave  him  no  less  a  title  to  obtain 
the  consulship  than  this  forensic  industry  of  ours  gave  us. 


86  CICERO 

"  But  in  the  standing  f<  »r  the  praetorship,  Servius  was  elected 
first."  Arc  you  going  (as  if  you  were  arguing  on  some  written 
bond)  to  contend  with  the  people  that,  whatever  place  of  honor 
they  have  once  given  anyone,  that  same  rank  they  are  bound 
to  give  him  in  all  other  honors?  For  what  sea,  what  Euripus 
do  you  think  exists,  which  is  liable  to  such  commotions — to 
such  great  and  various  agitations  of  waves,  as  the  storms  and 
tides  by  which  the  comitia  are  influenced  ?  The  interval  of  one 
day — the  lapse  of  one  night— often  throws  everything  into  con- 
fusion. The  slightest  breeze  of  rumor  sometimes  changes  the 
entire  opinions  of  people.  Often,  even,  everything  is  done 
without  any  apparent  cause,  in  a  manner  entirely  at  variance 
with  the  opinions  that  have  been  expressed,  or  that,  indeed,  are 
really  entertained ;  so  that  sometimes  the  people  marvels  that 
that  has  been  done  which  has  been  done,  as  if  it  were  not  itself 
that  has  done  it.  Nothing  is  more  uncertain  than  the  common 
people — nothing  more  obscure  than  men's  wishes — nothing 
more  treacherous  than  the  whole  nature  of  the  comitia.  Who 
expected  that  Lucius  Philippus,  a  man  of  the  greatest  abili1 
and  industry,  and  popularity,  and  nobleness  of  birth,  could  be 
beaten  by  a  Marcus  Herennius?  Who  dreamed  of  Quintus 
Catulus,  a  man  eminent  for  all  the  politer  virtues,  for  wisdom 
and  for  integrity,  being  beaten  by  Cnaeus  Mallius?  or  Marcus 
Scaurus,  a  man  of  the  highest  character,  an  illustrious  citizen, 
a  most  intrepid  senator,  by  Quintus  Maximus?  Not  only  none 
of  all  these  things  were  expected  to  happen,  but  not  even  when 
they  had  happened  could  anyone  possibly  make  out  why  they 
had  happened.  For  as  storms  arise,  often  being  heralded  by 
some  well-known  token  in  the  heavens,  but  often  also  quite 
unexpectedly  from  no  imaginable  reason,  but  from  some  unin- 
telligible cause ;  so  in  the  popular  tempests  of  the  comitia  you 
may  often  understand  by  what  signs  a  storm  was  first  raised, 
but  often,  too,  the  cause  is  so  obscure,  that  the  tempest  appears 
to  have  been  raised  by  chance. 

But  yet,  if  an  account  of  them  must  be  given,  two  qualities 
were  particularly  missed  in  the  praetorship,  the  existence  of 
which  in  Murena  now  was  of  the  greatest  use  to  him  in  standing 
for  the  consulship ;  one  was  the  expectation  of  a  largess,  which 
had  got  abroad  through  some  rumor,  and  owing  to  the  zeal  and 
conversation  of  some  of  his  competitors ;  the  other,  that  those 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF   LUCIUS   MURENA        87 

men  who  had  been  witnesses  of  all  his  liberality  and  virtue  in 
the  province  and  in  the  discharge  of  his  office  as  lieutenant,  had 
not  yet  left  Rome.  Fortune  reserved  each  of  these  advantages 
for  him,  to  aid  him  in  his  application  for  the  consulship.  For 
the  army  of  Lucius  Lucullus,  which  had  come  hither  for  his 
triumph,  was  also  present  at  the  comitia  in  aid  of  Lucius  Mu- 
rena,  and  his  praetorship  afforded  a  most  splendid  proof  of  his 
liberality,  of  which  there  was  no  mention  when  he  was  standing 
for  the  praetorship.  Do  these  things  appear  to  you  trifling  sup- 
ports and  aids  toward  obtaining  the  consulship  ?  Is  the  good- 
will of  the  soldiery  a  trifle  ?  who  are  both  intrinsically  powerful 
through  their  own  numbers,  and  also  by  their  influence  among 
their  connections,  and  who  in  declaring  a  consul  have  great 
weight  among  the  entire  Roman  people.  Are  the  votes  of  the 
army  a  trifle?  No;  for  it  is  generals,  and  not  interpreters  of 
words,  who  are  elected  at  the  consular  comitia.  Most  influen- 
tial, then,  is  such  a  speech  as  this :  "  He  refreshed  me  when  I 
was  wounded.  He  gave  me  a  share  of  the  plunder.  He  was 
the  general  when  we  took  that  camp — when  we  fought  that  bat- 
tle. He  never  imposed  harder  work  on  the  soldier  than  he 
underwent  himself.  He  was  as  fortunate  as  he  is  brave." 
What  weight  do  you  not  suppose  this  must  have  to  gaining  a 
reputation  and  good-will  among  men?  Indeed,  if  there  is  a 
sort  of  superstition  in  the  comitia,  that  up  to  this  time  the  omen 
to  be  drawn  from  the  vote  of  the  prerogative 7  tribe  has  always 
proved  true,  what  wonder  is  there  that  in  such  a  meeting  the 
reputation  of  good  fortune  and  such  discourse  as  this  has  had 
the  greatest  weight  ? 

But  if  you  think  these  things  trifling,  though  they  are  most 
important ;  and  if  you  prefer  the  votes  of  these  quiet  citizens  to 
those  of  the  soldiers ;  at  all  events,  you  cannot  think  lightly  of 
the  beauty  of  the  games  exhibited  by  this  man,  and  the  magnifi- 
cence of  his  theatrical  spectacles ;  and  these  things  were  of  great 
use  to  him  in  this  last  contest.  For  why  need  I  tell  you  that 
the  people  and  the  great  mass  of  ignorant  men  are  exceedingly 
taken  with  games  ?  It  is  not  very  strange.  And  that  is  a  suffi- 

T  In  the  comitia  centuriata  the  people  tiva.    The  question  of  a  tribus  pneroga- 

voted   in   their   centuries;   the   order   in  tiva  is  a  more   disputed  point;   but  on 

which  the  centuries  voted  was  decided  this   see   Smith,    Dictionary  of   Antiqui- 

by  lot,   and   that   which    gave   its   vote  ties,  p.  997,  v,  Tribus  (Roman), 
first  was  called  the  centuriata  praeroga- 


88  CICERO 

t  rt-nsnn  in  this  case;  for  the  comitia  arc  tl  ia  of  the 

people  and  the  multitude.  If.  then,  the  magnificence  of  games 
is  a  pleasure  to  the  people,  it  i>  MM  u..n.Kr  that  it  was  of  great 
service  to  Lucius  Murena  with  the  people.  But  if  we  ourscl 
u  ho,  from  our  constant  business,  have  but  little  time  for  amusc- 
nu-nt.  atul  who  are  able  to  derive  many  pleasures  of  another  sort 
f n  >m  our  business  itself,  are  still  pleased  and  interested  by  ex- 
hibitions of  games,  why  should  you  marvel  at  the  ignorant  mul- 
titude being  so?  Lucius  Otho,8  a  brave  man,  and  an  intimate 
friend  of  mine,  restored  not  only  its  dignity,  but  also  its  pleasure 
to  the  equestrian  order;  and,  therefore,  this  law  which  relates 
to  the  games  is  the  most  acceptable  of  all  laws,  because  by  it  that 
most  honorable  order  of  men  is  restored  not  only  to  its  honors, 
but  also  to  the  enjoyment  of  its  amusements.  Games,  then, 
believe  me,  are  a  great  delight  to  men,  even  to  those  who  are 
ashamed  to  own  it,  and  not  to  those  only  who  confess  it,  as  I 
found  to  be  the  case  in  my  contest  for  the  consulship ;  for  we 
also  had  a  theatrical  representation  as  our  competitor.  But  if 
I,  who,  as  aedile,  had  exhibited  those  shows  of  games,  was  yet 
influenced  by  the  games  exhibited  by  Antonius,  do  you  not 
suppose  that  that  very  silver  stage  exhibited  by  this  man,  which 
you  laugh  at,  was  a  serious  rival  to  you,  who,  as  it  happened, 
had  never  given  any  games  at  all  ?  But,  in  truth,  let  us  allow 
that  these  advantages  are  all  equal — let  exertions  displayed  in 
the  forum  be  allowed  to  be  equal  to  military  achievements — let 
the  votes  of  the  quiet  citizens  be  granted  to  be  of  equal  weight 
with  those  of  the  soldiers — let  it  be  of  equal  assistance  to  a  man 
to  have  exhibited  the  most  magnificent  games,  and  never  to 
have  exhibited  any  at  all ;  what  then  ?  Do  you  think  that  in 
the  praetorship  itself  there  was  no  difference  between  your  lot 
and  that  of  my  client  Murena? 

His  department  was  that  which  we  and  all  your  friends  de- 
sired for  you ;  that,  namely,  of  deciding  the  law ;  a  business  in 
which  the  importance  of  the  business  transacted  procures  great 
credit  for  a  man,  and  the  administration  of  justice  earns  him 
popularity;  for  which  department  a  wise  praetor,  such  as  Mu- 
rena was,  avoids  giving  offence  by  impartiality  in  his  decisions, 

•  This    refers    to    the    law    of    Lucius        of  seats  next  to  those  of  the  senators 
Roscius    Otho    (called    Roscia    Lex    by       were  reserved  for  the  knights. 
Horace),   by   which   the   fourteen   rowi 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA        89 

and  conciliates  good-will  by  his  good  temper  in  hearing  the 
cases  brought  before  him.  It  is  a  very  creditable  employment, 
and  very  well  adapted  to  gain  a  man  the  consulship,  being  one 
in  which  the  praise  of  justice,  integrity,  and  affability  is  crowned 
at  the  last  by  the  pleasure  of  the  games  which  he  exhibits. 
What  department  was  it  that  your  lot  gave  you  ?  A  disagree- 
able and  odious  one.  That  of  inquiry  into  peculation,  preg- 
nant on  the  one  side  with  the  tears  and  mourning  apparel  of  the 
accused,  full  on  the  other  side  of  imprisonment  and  informers. 
In  that  department  of  justice  judges  are  forced  to  act  against 
their  will,  are  retained  by  force  contrary  to  their  inclination. 
The  clerk  is  hated,  the  whole  body  is  unpopular.  The  gratifi- 
cations given  by  Sylla  are  found  fault  with.  Many  brave  men 
— indeed,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  city  is  offended ;  dam- 
ages are  assigned  with  severity.  The  man  who  is  pleased  with 
the  decision  soon  forgets  it ;  he  who  loses  his  cause  is  sure  to  re- 
member it.  Lastly,  you  would  not  go  to  your  province.  I 
cannot  find  fault  with  that  resolution  in  you,  which,  both  as 
praetor  and  consul,  I  have  adopted  in  my  own  case.  But  still 
Lucius  Murena's  conduct  in  his  province  procured  him  the 
affection  of  many  influential  men,  and  a  great  accession  of  repu- 
tation. On  his  road  he  held  a  levy  of  troops  in  Umbria.  The 
republic  enabled  him  to  display  his  liberality,  which  he  did  so 
effectually  as  to  engage  in  his  interest  many  tribes  which  are 
connected  with  the  municipalities  of  that  district.  And  in  Gaul 
itself,  he  contrived  by  his  equity  and  diligence  to  enable  many 
of  our  citizens  to  recover  debts  which  they  had  entirely  de- 
spaired of.  In  the  mean  time  you  were  living  at  Rome,  ready 
to  help  your  friends.  I  confess  that — but  still  recollect  this, 
that  the  inclinations  of  some  friends  are  often  cooled  toward 
those  men  by  whom  they  see  that  provinces  are  despised. 

And  since  I  have  proved,  O  judges,  that  in  this  contest  for 
the  consulship  Murena  had  the  same  claims  of  worth  that  Sul- 
picious  had,  accompanied  with  a  very  different  fortune  as  re- 
spects the  business  of  their  respective  provinces,  I  will  say  more 
plainly  in  what  particular  my  friend  Servius  was  inferior ;  and 
I  will  say  those  things  while  you  are  now  hearing  me — now  that 
the  time  of  the  elections  is  over — which  I  have  often  said  to  him 
by  himself  before  the  affair  was  settled.  I  often  told  you,  O 
Servius,  that  you  did  not  know  how  to  stand  for  the  consul- 


90  CICERO 

ship;  and,  in  resprct  t<>  those-  \  u-rs  which  I  saw  you  « 

ducting  and  advocating  in  a  brave  and  magnanimous  spirit,  1 
.id  to  you  that  you  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  brave  senator 
rather  than  a  wise  candidate.  For,  in  tin-  first  place,  tl 
and  threats  of  accusations  which  you  were  in  the  habit  of  em- 
ploying every  day,  are  rather  the  part  of  a  fearless  man;  but 
they  have  an  unfavorable  effect  on  the  opinion  of  the  people  as 
regards  a  man's  hopes  of  getting  anything  from  them,  and  they 
even  disarm  the  zeal  of  his  friends.  Somehow  or  other,  this  is 
always  the  case ;  and  it  has  been  noticed,  not  in  one  or  two  in- 
stances, but  in  many ;  so  that  the  moment  a  candidate  is  seen  to 
turn  his  attention  to  provocations,  he  is  supposed  to  have  given 
up  all  hopes  of  his  election. 

What,  then,  am  I  saying?  Do  I  mean  that  a  man  is  not  to 
prosecute  another  for  any  injury  which  he  may  have  received  ? 
Certainly  I  mean  nothing  of  the  sort.  But  the  times  for  prose- 
cuting and  for  standing  for  the  consulship  are  different.  I  con- 
sider that  a  candidate  for  any  office,  especially  for  the  consul- 
ship, ought  to  come  down  into  the  forum  and  into  the  Campus 
Martius  with  great  hopes,  with  great  courage,  and  with  great 
resources.  But  I  do  not  like  a  candidate  to  be  looking  about 
for  evidence — conduct  what  is  a  sure  forerunner  of  a  repulse. 
I  do  not  like  his  being  anxious  to  marshal  witnesses  rather  than 
voters.  I  do  not  fancy  threats  instead  of  caresses — declama- 
tion where  there  should  be  salutation ;  especially  as,  according 
to  the  new  fashion  now  existing,  all  candidates  visit  the  houses 
of  nearly  all  the  citizens,  and  from  their  countenances  men  form 
their  conjectures  as  to  what  spirits  and  what  probabilities  of 
success  each  candidate  has.  "  Do  you  see  how  gloomy  that  man 
looks  ?  how  dejected  ?  He  is  out  of  spirits ;  he  thinks  he  has 
no  chance ;  he  has  laid  down  his  arms."  Then  a  report  gets 
abroad,  "  Do  you  know  that  he  is  thinking  of  a  prosecution  ? 
He  is  seeking  for  evidence  against  his  competitors ;  he  is  hunt- 
ing for  witnesses.  I  shall  vote  for  someone  else,  as  he  knows 
that  he  has  no  chance."  The  most  intimate  friends  of  such 
candidates  as  that  are  dispirited  and  disarmed,  they  abandon 
all  anxiety  in  the  matter — they  give  up  a  business  which  is  so 
manifestly  hopeless,  or  else  they  reserve  all  their  labor  and  in- 
fluence to  countenance  their  friend  in  the  trial  and  prosecution 
which  he  is  meditating. 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA        91 

And,  besides  all  this,  the  candidate  himself  cannot  devote 
his  whole  thoughts,  and  care,  and  attention,  and  diligence  to 
his  own  election ;  for  he  has  also  in  his  mind  the  thoughts  of  his 
prosecution — a  matter  of  no  small  importance,  but  in  truth  of 
the  very  greatest.  For  it  is  a  very  serious  business  to  be  pre- 
paring measures  by  which  to  deprive  a  man,  especially  one  who 
is  not  powerless  or  without  resources,  of  his  rights  as  a  citizen  ; 
one  who  is  defended  both  by  himself  and  by  his  friend — ay,  and 
perhaps  also  by  strangers.  For  we  all  of  us  naturally  hasten 
to  save  anyone  from  danger ;  and,  if  we  are  not  notoriously  ene- 
mies to  them,  we  tender,  even  to  utter  strangers,  when  men- 
aced by  danger  affecting  their  station  as  citizens,  the  services 
and  zeal  which  are,  strictly  speaking,  due  only  to  the  causes  of 
our  friends.  On  which  account  I,  who  know  by  experience 
the  troubles  attending  on  standing  for  office,  on  defending  and 
accusing  prisoners,  consider  that  the  truth  in  respect  of  each 
business  stands  thus — that  in  standing  for  an  office,  eagerness 
is  the  chief  thing ;  in  defending  a  man,  a  regard  for  one's  duty 
is  the  principal  thing  shown ;  in  accusing  a  man,  the  labor  is 
greatest.  And  therefore  I  say  decidedly  that  it  is  quite  impos- 
sible for  the  same  man  to  do  justice  properly  to  the  part  of  an 
accuser  and  a  candidate  for  the  consulship.  Few  can  play 
either  part  well ;  no  one  can  do  justice  to  both.  Did  you,  when 
you  turned  aside  out  of  the  course  prescribed  for  you  as  a  can- 
didate, and  when  you  had  transferred  your  attention  to  the  task 
of  prosecuting,  think  that  you  could  fulfil  all  the  requirements 
of  both  ?  You  were  greatly  mistaken  if  you  did ;  for  what  day 
was  there  after  you  once  entered  on  that  prosecution,  that  you 
did  not  devote  the  whole  of  it  to  that  occupation? 

You  demanded  a  law  about  bribery,  though  there  was  no 
deficiency  of  laws  on  that  matter,  for  there  was  the  Calpurnian 
law,  framed  with  the  greatest  severity.  Your  inclinations  and 
your  wish  procured  compliance  with  your  demand;  but  the 
whole  of  that  law  might  perhaps  have  armed  your  accusation, 
if  you  had  had  a  guilty  defendant  to  prosecute ;  but  it  has  been 
of  great  injury  to  you  as  a  candidate.  A  more  severe  punish- 
ment for  the  common  people  was  demanded  by  your  voice. 
The  minds  of  the  lower  orders  were  agitated.  The  punishment 
of  an  exile  was  demanded  in  the  case  of  anyone  of  our  order 
being  convicted.  The  Senate  granted  it  to  your  request ;  but 


9a  CICERO 

still  it  was  with  no  good-will  that  they  established  a  more  severe 
condition  for  our  common  fortunes  at  your  instigation.  Pun- 
i.>hment  was  imposed  on  anyone  who  made  the  excuse  of  ill- 
ness. The  inclinations  of  many  men  were  alienated  by  : 
step,  as  by  it  they  were  forced  either  to  labor  to  the  prejudice  of 
their  health,  or  else  through  the  distress  of  illness  they  were 
compelled  to  abandon  the  other  enjoyments  of  life.  What, 
then,  are  we  to  say  of  this?  Who  passed  this  law ?  He  who, 
in  so  doing,  acted  in  obedience  to  the  Senate,  and  to  your  \\ 
I  le,  in  short,  passed  it  to  whom  it  was  not  of  the  slightest  per- 
sonal advantage.  Do  you  think  that  those  proposals  which, 
with  my  most  willing  consent,  the  senate  rejected  in  a  very  full 
house,  were  but  a  slight  hinderance  to  you  ?  You  demanded 
the  confusion  of  the  votes  of  all  the  centuries,  the  extension  of 
the  Manilian  law,"  the  equalization  of  all  interest,  and  dignity, 
and  of  all  the  suffrages.  Honorable  men,  men  of  influence  in 
their  neighborhoods  and  municipalities,  were  indignant  that 
such  a  man  should  contend  for  the  abolition  of  all  degrees  in 
dignity  and  popularity.  You  also  wished  to  have  judges  se- 
lected by  the  accuser  at  his  pleasure,  the  effect  of  which  would 
have  been,  that  the  secret  dislikes  of  the  citizens,  which  are  at 
present  confined  to  silent  grumblings,  would  have  broken  out 
in  attacks  on  the  fortunes  of  every  eminent  man. 

All  these  measures  were  strengthening  your  hands  as  a  pros- 
ecutor, but  weakening  your  chance  as  a  candidate.  And  by 
them  all  a  violent  blow  was  struck  at  your  hopes  of  success,  as 
I  warned  you ;  and  many  very  severe  things  were  said  about  it 
by  that  most  able  and  most  eloquent  man,  Hortensius,  owing 
to  which  my  task  of  speaking  now  is  the  more  difficult ;  as,  after 
both  he  had  spoken  before  me,  and  also  Marcus  Crassus,  a  man 
of  the  greatest  dignity,  and  industry,  and  skill  as  an  orator,  I, 
coming  in  at  the  end,  was  not  to  plead  some  part  of  the  cause, 
but  to  say  with  respect  to  the  whole  matter  whatever  I  thought 
advisable.  Therefore  I  am  forced  to  recur  to  the  same  ideas, 
and,  to  a  great  extent,  O  judges,  I  have  to  contend  with  a  feel- 
ing of  satiety  on  your  part. 

But  still,  O  Servius,  do  you  not  see  that  you  completely  lay 

•This  was  not  the  Manilian  law,   in  be  counted  without  any  regard  to  the 

support  of  which  Cicero  spoke,  to  con-  centuries  in  which  they  were  given;  but 

fer  the  command  in  Asia  on  Pompeius;  this    law    was    repealed    soon    after    its 

but  a  law  enacting  that  the  votes  should  enactment. 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA        93 

the  axe  to  the  root  of  your  chance  as  a  candidate,  when  you  give 
the  Roman  people  cause  for  apprehension  that  Catiline  might 
be  made  consul  through  your  neglect,  and,  I  may  almost  say, 
abandonment  of  your  canvass,  while  you  were  intent  on  your 
prosecution  ?  In  truth,  men  saw  that  you  were  hunting  about 
for  evidence ;  that  you  yourself  looked  gloomy,  your  friends  out 
of  spirits ;  they  noticed  your  visits,  your  inquiries  after  proofs, 
your  privy  meetings  with  your  witnesses,  your  conferences 
with  your  junior  counsel ;  all  which  matters  are  certainly  apt  to 
make  the  countenance  of  a  candidate  look  darker.  Meantime 
they  saw  Catiline  cheerful  and  joyous,  accompanied  by  a  band 
of  youths,  with  a  body-guard  of  informers  and  assassins,  elated 
by  the  hopes  which  he  placed  in  the  soldiers,  and,  as  he  himself 
said,  by  the  promises  of  my  colleagues ;  surrounded,  too,  with 
a  numerous  body  of  colonists  from  Arretium  and  Faesulae — a 
crowd  made  conspicuous  by  the  presence  of  men  of  a  very 
different  sort  in  it,  men  who  had  been  ruined  by  the  disasters 
in  the  time  of  Sylla.  His  own  countenance  was  full  of  fury; 
his  eyes  glared  with  wickedness- ;  his  discourse  breathed  noth- 
ing but.  arrogance.  You  might  have  thought  that  he  had  as- 
sured himself  of  the  consulship,  and  that  he  had  got  it  locked 
up  at  home.  Murena  he  despised.  Sulpicius  he  considered 
as  his  prosecutor,  not  as  a  competitor.  He  threatened  him  with 
violence ;  he  threatened  the  republic. 

And  I  need  not  remind  you  with  what  terror  all  good  men 
were  seized  in  consequence  of  these  occurrences,  and  how  en- 
tirely they  would  all  have  despaired  of  the  republic  if  he  had 
been  made  consul.  All  this  you  yourselves  recollect ;  for  you 
remember,  when  the  expressions  of  that  wicked  gladiator  got 
abroad,  which  he  was  said  to  have  used  at  a  meeting  at  his  own 
house,  when  he  said  that  it  was  impossible  for  any  faithful  de- 
fender of  the  miserable  citizens  to  be  found,  except  a  man  who 
was  himself  miserable ;  that  men  in  an  embarrassed  and  desper- 
ate condition  ought  not  to  trust  the  promises  of  men  of  a  flour- 
ishing and  fortunate  estate ;  and  therefore  that  those  who  were 
desirous  to  replace  what  they  had  spent,  and  to  recover  what 
they  had  lost,  had  better  consider  what  he  himself  owed,  what  he 
possessed,  and  what  he  would  dare  to  do ;  that  that  man  ought  to 
be  very  fearless  and  thoroughly  overwhelmed  by  misfortune, 
who  was  to  be  the  leader  and  standard-bearer  of  unfortunate 


94 


CICERO 


men.     Thru.  tlu-ref<  tln-M-  tiling  had  been  heard, 

recollect  that  a  resolution  of  the  Sen.itt  was  passed,  on  my  mo- 
tion, that  the  eomitia  should  not  be  held  tin-  i:  in  order 
that  we  might  be  able  t<  these  matters  in  the  Senate. 
Accordingly,  the  next  day,  in  a  full  meeting  of  the  Senate,  I  ad- 
dressed Catiline  himself,  and  desirrd  him,  if  he  could,  to  give 
some  explanation  of  these  reports  which  had  been  brought  to 
me.  And  he — for  he  was  not  much  addicted  to  disguising  his 
intentions — did  not  attempt  to  clear  himself,  but  openly  avowed 
and  adopted  the  statements.  For  he  said  then,  that  there  were 
two  bodies  of  the  republic — the  one  weak  with  a  weak  head,  the 
other  powerful  without  a  head — and  that,  as  this  last  had  de- 
served well  of  him,  it  should  never  want  a  head  as  long  as  he 
lived.  The  whole  Senate  groaned  at  hearing  itself  addressed 
in  such  language,  and  passed  a  resolution  not  severe  enough 
for  such  unworthy  conduct ;  for  some  of  them  were  against  too 
rigorous  a  resolution,  because  they  had  no  fear;  and  some,  be- 
cause they  had  a  great  deal.  Then  he  rushed  forth  from  the 
Senate,  triumphing  and  exulting — a  man  who  never  ought  to 
have  been  allowed  to  leave  it  alive,  especially  as  that  very  same 
man  in  the  same  place  had  made  answer  to  Cato,  that  gallant 
man  who  was  threatening  him  with  a  prosecution,  a  few  days 
before,  that  if  any  fire  were  kindled  against  his  own  fortunes, 
he  would  put  it  out,  not  with  water,  but  by  the  general  ruin. 

Being  influenced  then  by  these  facts,  and  knowing  that  men 
who  were  already  associated  in  a  conspiracy  were  being  brought 
down  by  Catiline  into  the  Campus  Martius,  armed  with  swords, 
I  myself  descended  into  the  campus  with  a  guard  of  brave  men, 
and  with  that  broad  and  shining  breastplate,  not  in  order  to 
protect  me  (for  I  knew  that  Catiline  would  aim  at  my  head  and 
neck,  not  at  my  chest  or  body),  but  in  order  that  all  good  men 
might  observe  it,  and,  when  they  saw  their  consul  in  fear  and  in 
danger,  might,  as  they  did,  throng  together  for  my  assistance 
and  protection.  Therefore,,  as,  O  Servius,  men  thought  you 
very  remiss  in  prosecuting  the  contest,  and  saw  Catiline  in- 
flamed with  hope  and  desire,  all  who  wished  to  repel  that  pest 
from  the  republic  immediately  joined  the  party  of  Murena. 
And  in  the  consular  eomitia  the  sudden  inclination  of  men's 
feelings  is  often  of  great  weight,  especially  as,  in  this  case,  it 
took  the  direction  of  a  very  gallant  man,  who  was  assisted  by 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE   OF  LUCIUS   MURENA        95 

many  other  concurrent  aids  in  his  application  for  the  office. 
He  was  born  of  a  most  honorable  father  and  ancestors ;  he  had 
passed  his  youth  in  a  most  modest  manner ;  he  had  discharged 
the  office  of  a  lieutenant  with  great  credit ;  he  had  been  praetor, 
as  such  he  had  been  approved  as  a  judge ;  he  had  been  popular 
through  his  liberality;  he  had  been  highly  honored  in  his  prov- 
ince ;  he  had  been  very  diligent  in  his  canvass,  and  had  carried 
it  on  so  as  neither  to  give  way  if  anyone  threatened  him,  nor  to 
threaten  anyone  himself.  Can  we  wonder  that  the  sudden  hope 
which  Catiline  now  entertained  of  obtaining  the  consulship  was 
a  great  assistance  to  this  man  ? 

The  third  topic  which  I  have  got  to  speak  about  refers  to  the 
charge  of  bribery ;  which  has  been  already  entirely  refuted  by 
those  who  have  spoken  before  me,  but  which  must  still  be  dis- 
cussed by  me,  since  such  is  the  will  of  Murena.  And  while 
speaking  on  this  point,  I  will  reply  to  what  Postumius,  my  own 
intimate  friend,  a  most  accomplished  man,  has  said  about  the 
trials  of  agents,  and  about  sums  of  money  which  he  asserts  have 
been  found ;  and  to  what  Servius  Sulpicius,  that  able  and  virtu- 
ous young  man,  has  said  about  the  centuries  of  the  knights ;  and 
to  what  Marcus  Cato,  a  man  eminent  in  every  kind  of  virtue,  has 
said  about  his  own  accusation,  about  the  resolution  of  the  Sen- 
ate, and  about  the  republic  in  general. 

But  first  of  all  I  will  say  a  little,  which  has  just  occurred  to 
me,  about  the  hard  fortune  of  Lucius  Murena.  For  I  have 
often  before  now,  O  judges,  judging  both  by  the  miseries  of 
others,  and  by  my  own  daily  cares  and  labors,  considered  those 
men  fortunate,  who,  being  at  a  distance  from  the  pursuits  of 
ambition,  have  addicted  themselves  to  ease  and  tranquillity  of 
life ;  and  now  especially  I  am  so  affected  by  these  serious  and 
unexpected  dangers  of  Lucius  Murena,  that  I  am  unable  ade- 
quately to  express  my  pity  for  the  common  condition  of  all  of 
us,  or  for  his  particular  state  and  fortune ;  who  while,  after  an 
uninterrupted  series  of  honors  attained  by  his  family  and  his 
ancestors,  he  was  endeavoring  to  mount  one  step  higher  in  dig- 
nity, has  incurred  the  danger  of  losing  both  the  honors  be- 
queathed to  him  by  his  forefathers,  and  those  too  which  have 
been  acquired  by  himself,  and  now,  on  account  of  his  pursuit 
of  this  new  honor,  is  brought  into  the  danger  of  losing  his  an- 
cient fortune  also.  And  as  there  are  weighty  considerations, 


96  CICERO 

O  judges,  so  is  this  the  most  serious  matter  of  all,  that  he  has 

men  f.»r  aivu^rrs  who.  instead  of  proi  '  use  Inn. 

account  of  their  private  enmity  against  him,  have  become 
personal  enemies,  being  carried  away  by  their  zeal  fur  their  ac- 
cusation. For,  to  say  nothing  of  Servius  Sulpicius,  who,  I  am 
aware,  is  influenced  not  by  any  wrong  done  by  Lucius  Murcna, 
but  only  by  the  party  spirit  engendered  by  the  contest  for  honor, 
his  father's  friend.  L'tueus  I'ostumius,  is  his  accuser,  an  <>M 

;hbor  and  intimate  friend  of  his  own,  as  he  says  him 
who  has  mentioned  many  reasons  for  his  intimacy  with  him. 
while  he  has  not  IK  en  able  to  mention  one  for  any  enmit 
him.  Servius  Sulpicius  accuses  him,  the  companion  qf  hi-* 
son — he,  by  whose  genius  all  the  friends  of  his  father  ought  to 
be  only  the  more  defended.  Marcus  Cato  accuses  him,  who, 
though  he  has  never  been  in  any  matter  whatever  at  variance 
with  Murena,  yet  was  born  in  this  city  under  such  circum- 
stances that  his  power  and  genius  ought  to  be  a  protection  to 
many  who  were  even  entire  strangers  to  him,  and  ought  to  be 
the  ruin  of  hardly  any  personal  enemy. 

In  the  first  instance,  then,  I  will  reply  to  Cnaeus  Postumius, 
who,  somehow  or  other,  I  know  not  how,  while  a  candidate  for 
the  praetorship,  appears  to  me  to  be  a  straggler  into  the  course 
marked  out  for  the  candidates  for  the  consulship,  as  the  horse 
of  a  vaulter  might  escape  into  the  course  marked  out  for  the 
chariot  races.  And  if  there  is  no  fault  whatever  to  be  found 
with  his  competitors,  then  he  has  made  a  great  concession  to 
their  worth  in  desisting  from  his  canvass.  But  if  any  one  of 
them  has  committed  bribery,  then  he  must  look  for  some  friend 
who  will  be  more  inclined  to  prosecute  an  injury  done  to  an- 
other than  one  done  to  himself. 

I  come  now  to  Marcus  Cato,  who  is  the  mainstay  and  prop 
of  the  whole  prosecution ;  who  is,  however,  so  zealous  and  ve- 
hement a  prosecutor,  that  I  am  much  more  afraid  of  the  weight 
of  his  name,  than  of  his  accusation.  And  with  respect  to  tin's 
accuser,  O  judges,  first  of  all  I  will  entreat  you  not  to  let  Cato's 
dignity,  nor  your  expectation  of  his  tribuneship,  nor  the  high 
reputation  and  virtue  of  his  whole  life,  be  any  injury  to  Lucius 
Murena.  Let  not  all  the  honors  of  Marcus  Cato,  which  he  has 
acquired  in  order  to  be  able  to  assist  many  men,  be  an  injury  to 
my  client  alone.  Publius  Africanus  had  been  twice  consul, 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA      97 

and  had  destroyed  those  two  terrors  of  this  empire,  Carthage 
and  Numantia,  when  he  prosecuted  Lucius  Cotta.  He  was  a 
man  of  the  most  splendid  eloquence,  of  the  greatest  good  faith, 
of  the  purest  integrity ;  his  authority  was  as  great  almost  as  that 
of  the  Roman  people  itself,  in  that  empire  which  had  been 
mainly  saved  by  his  means.  I  have  often  heard  old  men  say 
that  this  very  extraordinarily  high  character  of  the  accuser  was 
of  the  greatest  service  to  Lucius  Cotta.  Those  wise  men  who 
then  were  the  judges  in  that  cause,  did  not  like  anyone  to  be 
defeated  in  any  trial,  if  he  was  to  appear  overwhelmed  only  by 
the  excessive  influence  of  his  adversary.  What  more  shall  I 
say?  Did  not  the  Roman  people  deliver  Sergius  Galba  (the 
fact  is  preserved  in  the  recollection  of  everyone)  from  your 
grandfather,  that  most  intrepid  and  prosperous  man,  Marcus 
Cato,  who  was  zealously  seeking  his  ruin  ?  At  all  times  in  this 
city  the  whole  people,  and  also  the  judges,  wise  men,  looking 
far  into  futurity,  have  resisted  the  overweening  power  of  prose- 
cutors. I  do  not  like  an  accuser  bringing  his  personal  power, 
or  any  predominant  influence,  or  his  own  eminent  authority,  or 
his  own  excessive  popularity,  into  a  court  of  justice.  Let  all 
these  things  have  weight  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  innocent,  to 
aid  the  weak,  to  succor  the  unfortunate.  But  in  a  case  where 
the  danger  and  ruin  of  citizens  may  ensue,  let  them  be  rejected. 
For  if  perchance  anyone  should  say  that  Cato  would  not  have 
come  forward  as  an  accuser  if  he  had  not  previously  made  up  his 
mind  about  the  justice  of  the  cause,  he  will  then  be  laying  down 
a  most  unjust  law,  O  judges,  and  establishing  a  miserable  con- 
dition for  men  in  their  danger,  if  he  thinks  that  the  opinion  of 
an  accuser  is  to  have  against  a  defendant  the  weight  of  a  previ- 
ous investigation  legally  conducted. 

I,  O  Cato,  do  not  venture  to  find  fault  with  your  intentions, 
by  reason  of  my  extraordinarily  high  opinion  of  your  virtue  ; 
but  in  some  particulars  I  may  perhaps  be  able  slightly  to  amend 
and  reform  them.  "  You  are  not  very  wrong,"  said  an  aged 
tutor  to  a  very  brave  man ;  "  but  if  you  are  wrong,  I  can  set  you 
right."  But  I  can  say  with  the  greatest  truth  that  you  never 
do  wrong,  and  that  your  conduct  is  never  such  in  any  point  as 
to^need  correction,  but  only  such  as  occasionally  to  require 
being  guided  a  little.  For  nature  has  herself  formed  you  for 
honesty,  and  gravity,  and  moderation,  and  magnanimity,  and 


98  CICERO 

justice ;  and  for  all  the  virtues  required  to  make  a  great  and 
noble  man.  To  all  these  qualities  are  added  an  educ;r 
moderate,  nor  mild,  but,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  little  harsh  and 
severe,  more  so  than  either  truth  or  nature  would  permit, 
since  we  are  not  to  address  this  speed)  either  to  an  ignorant 
multitude,  or  to  any  assembly  of  rnstu>.  1  will  speak  a  little 
boldly  about  the  pursuits  of  educated  men,  which  are  both  well 
known  and  agreeable  to  you,  O  judges,  and  to  me.  Learn, 
then,  O  judges,  that  all  these  good  qualities,  divine  and  splendid 
as  they  are,  which  we  behold  in  Marcus  Cato,  are  his  own  pe- 
culiar attributes.  The  qualities  which  we  sometimes  wish  for 
in  him,  are  not  all  those  which  are  implanted  in  a  man  by  nat 
but  some  of  them  are  such  as  are  derived  from  education.  For 
there  was  once  a  man  of  the  greatest  genius,  whose  name  was 
Zeno,  the  imitators  of  whose  example  are  called  Stoics.  ! 
opinions  and  precepts  are  of  this  sort :  that  a  wise  man  is  never 
influenced  by  interest ;  never  pardons  any  man's  fault ;  that  no 
one  is  merciful  except  a  fool  and  a  trifler ;  that  it  is  not  the  part  of 
a  man  to  be  moved  or  pacified  by  entreaties  ;  that  wise  men,  let 
them  be  ever  so  deformed,  are  the  only  beautiful  men ;  if  they 
be  ever  such  beggars,  they  are  the  only  rich  men ;  if  they  be  in 
slavery,  they  are  kings.  And  as  for  all  of  us  who  are  not  wise 
men,  they  call  us  runaway  slaves,  exiles,  enemies,  lunatics. 
They  say  that  all  offences  are  equal ;  that  every  sin  is  an  unpar- 
donable crime ;  and  that  he  does  not  commit  a  less  crime  who 
kills  a  cock,  if  there  was  no  need  to  do  so,  than  the  man  who 
strangles  his  father.  They  say  that  a  wise  man  never  feels  un- 
certain on  any  point,  never  repents  of  anything,  is  never  de- 
ceived in  anything,  and  never  alters  his  opinion. 

All  these  opinions  that  most  acute  man,  Marcus  Cato,  having 
been  induced  by  learned  advocates  of  them,  has  embraced ;  and 
that,  not  for  the  sake  of  arguing  about  them,  as  is  the  case  with 
most  men,  but  of  living  by  them.  Do  the  publicans  ask  for 
anything?  "Take  care  that  their  influence  has  no  weight." 
Do  any  suppliants,  miserable  and  unhappy  men,  come  to  us? 
"  You  will  be  a  wicked  and  infamous  man  if  you  do  anything 
from  being  influenced  by  mercy."  Does  anyone  confess  that 
he  has  done  wrong,  and  beg  pardon  for  his  wrongdoing?  "  To 
pardon  is  a  crime  of  the  deepest  dye."  "  But  it  is  a  trifling 
offence."  "  All  offences  are  equal."  You  say  something. 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA         99 

"  That  is  a  fixed  and  unalterable  principle."  "  You  are  influ- 
enced not  by  the  facts,  but  by  your  opinion."  "  A  wise  man 
never  forms  mere  opinions."  "  You  have  made  a  mistake  in 
some  point."  He  thinks  that  you  are  abusing  him.  And  in 
accordance  with  these  principles  of  his  are  the  following  asser- 
tions :  "  I  said  in  the  Senate,  that  I  would  prosecute  one  of  the 
candidates  for  the  consulship."  "  You  said  that  when  you 
were  angry."  "  A  wise  man  never  is  angry."  "  But  you  said 
it  for  some  temporary  purpose."  "  It  is  the  act,"  says  he,  "  of 
a  worthless  man  to  deceive  by  a  lie  ;  it  is  a  disgraceful  act  to  alter 
one's  opinion ;  to  be  moved  by  entreaties  is  wickedness ;  to  pity 
anyone  is  an  enormity."  But  our  philosophers  (for  I  confess, 
O  Cato,  that  I,  too,  in  my  youth,  distrusting  my  own  abilities, 
sought  assistance  from  learning),  our  philosophers,  I  say,  men 
of  the  school  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  men  of  soberness  and  mod- 
eration, say  that  private  interest  does  sometimes  have  weight 
even  with  a  wise  man.  They  say  that  it  does  become  a  virtuous 
man  to  feel  pity ;  that  there  are  different  gradations  of  offences, 
and  different  degrees  of  punishment  appropriate  to  each ;  that 
a  man  with  every  proper  regard  for  firmness  may  pardon 
offences ;  that  even  the  wise  man  himself  has  sometimes  nothing 
more  than  opinion  to  go  upon,  without  absolute  certainty  ;  that 
he  is  sometimes  angry ;  that  he  is  sometimes  influenced  and 
pacified  by  entreaty ;  that  he  sometimes  does  change  an  opinion 
which  he  may  have  expressed,  when  it  is  better  to  do  so ;  that 
he  sometimes  abandons  his  previous  opinions  altogether;  and 
that  all  his  virtues  are  tempered  by  a  certain  moderation. 

If  any  chance,  O  Cato,  had  conducted,  endowed  with  your 
existing  natural  disposition,  to  those  tutors,  you  would  not  in- 
deed have  been  a  better  man  than  you  are,  nor  a  braver  one, 
nor  more  temperate,  nor  more  just  than  you  are  (for  that  is  not 
possible),  but  you  would  have  been  a  little  more  inclined  to 
lenity ;  you  would  not,  when  you  were  not  induced  by  any  en- 
mity, or  provoked  by  any  personal  injury,  accuse  a  most  virtu- 
ous man,  a  man  of  the  highest  rank  and  the  greatest  integrity ; 
you  would  consider  that  as  fortune  had  intrusted  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  same  year  to  you  10  and  to  Murena,  that  you  were 
connected  with  him  by  some  certain  political  union;  and  the 
severe  things  which  you  have  said  in  the  Senate  you  would 

10  Cato  was  tribune-elect. 


ioo  CICERO 

either  not  have  said,  or  you  would  have  guarded  against  their 
being  applied  to  him,  or  you  would  have  interpreted  them  in 
the  mildest  sense.  And  even  you  yourself  (at  lea>t  that  is  my 
opinion  and  expectation  <  1  as  you  are  at  present  by  the 

impetuosity  of  your  disposition,  and  elated  as  you  are  both  by 
the  vigor  of  your  natural  character  and  by  your  confidence  in 
your  own  ability,  and  intlamcd  as  you  are  by  your  recent  study 
of  all  these  precepts,  will  find  practice  modify  them,  and  time 
and  increasing  years  soften  and  humanize  you.  In  truth,  those 
tutors  and  teachers  of  virtue,  whom  you  think  so  much  of,  ap- 
pear to  me  themselves  to  have  carried  their  definitions  of  duties 
somewhat  further  than  is  agreeable  to  nature ;  and  it  would  be 
better  if,  when  \ve  lia<l  in  theory  pushed  our  principles  to 
tremities,  yet  in  practice  we  stopped  at  what  was  expedient. 
"  Forgive  nothing."  Say  rather,  forgive  some  things,  but  not 
everything.  "  Do  nothing  for  the  sake  of  private  influence." 
Certainly  resist  private  influence  when  virtue  and  good  faith 
require  you  to  do  so.  "  Do  not  be  moved  by  pity."  Certainly 
if  it  is  to  extinguish  all  impartiality ;  nevertheless,  there  is  some 
credit  due  to  humanity.  "  Abide  by  your  own  opinion."  Very 
true,  unless  some  other  sounder  opinion  convinces  you.  That 
great  Scipio  was  a  man  of  this  sort,  who  had  no  objection  to  do 
the  same  thing  that  you  do ;  to  keep  a  most  learned  man,  a  man 
of  almost  divine  wisdom,  in  his  house ;  by  whose  conversation 
and  precepts,  although  they  were  the  very  same  that  you  are  so 
fond  of,  he  was  nevertheless  not  made  more  severe,  but  (as  1 
have  heard  said  by  old  men)  he  was  rendered  most  merciful. 
win )  was  more  mild  in  his  manners  than  Caius  Laelius  ?  who 
was  more  agreeable  than  he?  (devoted  to  the  same  studies  as 
you) ;  who  was  more  virtuous  or  more  wise  than  he  ?  I  might 
say  the  same  of  Lucius  Philus,  and  of  Caius  Callus ;  but  I  will 
conduct  you  now  into  your  own  house.  Do  you  think  that 
there  was  any  man  more  courteous,  more  agreeable;  anyone 
whose  conduct  was  more  completely  regulated  by  every  princi- 
ple of  virtue  and  politeness,  than  Cato,  your  great-grandfather? 
And  when  you  were  speaking  with  truth  and  dignity  of  his 
virtue,  you  said  that  you  had  a  domestic  example  to  imitate. 
That  indeed  is  an  example  set  up  for  your  imitation  in  your  own 
family ;  and  the  similarity  of  nature  ought  rather  to  influence 
you  who  are  descended  from  him  than  any  one  of  us ;  but  still 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA       101 

that  example  is  as  much  an  object  for  my  imitation  as  for  yours. 
But  if  you  were  to  add  his  courtesy  and  affability  to  your  own 
wisdom  and  impartiality,  I  will  not  say  that  those  qualities 
which  are  now  most  excellent  will  be  made  intrinsically  better, 
but  they  will  certainly  be  more  agreeably  seasoned. 

Wherefore,  to  return  to  the  subject  which  I  began  to  speak 
of,  take  away  the  name  of  Cato  out  of  the  cause ;  remove  and 
leave  out  of  the  question  all  mention  of  authority,  which  in 
courts  of  justice  ought  either  to  have  no  influence  at  all,  or  only 
influence  to  contribute  to  someone's  safety;  and  discuss  with 
me  the  charges  themselves.  What  do  you  accuse  him  of,  Cato  ? 
What  action  of  his  is  it  that  you  bring  before  the  court  ?  What 
is  your  charge?  Do  you  accuse  him  of  bribery?  I  do  not 
defend  bribery.  You  blame  me  because  you  say  I  am  defend- 
ing the  very  conduct  which  I  brought  in  a  law  to  punish.  I 
punished  bribery,  not  innocence.  And  any  real  case  of  bribery 
I  will  join  you  in  prosecuting  if  you  please.  You  have  said 
that  a  resolution  of  the  Senate  was  passed,  on  my  motion,  "  that 
if  any  men  who  had  been  bribed  had  gone  to  meet  the  candi- 
dates, if  any  hired  men  followed  them,  if  places  were  given  men 
to  see  the  shows  of  gladiators  according  to  their  tribes,  and 
also,  if  dinners  were  given  to  the  common  people,  that  appeared 
to  be  a  violation  of  the  Calpurnian  law."  Therefore  the  Senate 
decides  that  these  things  were  done  in  violation  of  the  Calpur- 
nian law  if  they  were  done  at  all ;  it  decides  what  there  is  not  the 
least  occasion  for,  out  of  complaisance  for  the  candidates.  For 
there  is  a  great  question  whether  such  things  have  been  done 
or  not.  That,  if  they  have  been  done,  they  were  done  in  viola- 
tion of  the  law,  no  one  can  doubt.  It  is,  therefore,  ridiculous 
to  leave  that  uncertain  which  was  doubtful,  but  to  give  a  positive 
decision  on  that  point  which  can  be  doubtful  to  no  one.  And 
that  decree  is  passed  at  the  request  of  all  the  candidates  ;  in  order 
that  it  might  be  quite  impossible  to  make  out  from  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  Senate  whose  interests  were  consulted,  or  against 
whose  interests  it  was  passed.  Prove,  then,  that  these  actions 
have  been  done  by  Lucius  Murena ;  and  then  I  will  grant  to  you 
that  they  have  been  done  in  violation  of  the  law. 

"  Many  men  went  to  meet  him  as  he  was  departing  from  his 
province,  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  consulship."  That 
is  a  very  usual  thing  to  do.  Who  is  there  whom  people  do  not 


102  CICERO 

go  out  to  meet  on  his  return  home?    "  What  a  number  of  peo- 
ple tin y  wore."     In  the  first  place,  if  I  am  not  able  to  give  you 
>-ount  of  it.  what  v.  it  ii  many  im-n  did  go  out 

to  meet  such  a  man  on  hi>  arrival,  being  a  candidate  for  the  i 
sul.-hip  ?  If  they  had  not  done  so,  it  would  have  appeared  much 
more  strange.  \Yhat  then  ?  Suppose  I  were  even  to  add,  what 
there  w«>ul<l  be  nothing  unusual  in,  that  many  had  been 
asked  to  go?  \Vonld  that  be  matter  of  accusation,  or  at  all 
strange,  that,  in  a  city  in  which  we,  when  we  are  asked,  often 
come  to  escort  the  sons  of  even  the  lowest  rank,  almost  before 
the  night  is  over,  from  the  farthest  part  of  the  city,  men  should 
not  mind  going  at  the  third  hour  into  the  Campus  Martius,  es- 
pecially when  they  have  been  invited  in  the  name  of  such  a  man 
as  Murena?  What  then?  What  if  all  the  societies  had  come 
to  meet  him,  of  which  bodies  many  are  sitting  here  as  judi; 
What  if  many  men  of  our  own  most  honorable  order  had  come? 
What  then?  What  if  the  whole  of  that  most  officious  body  of 
candidates,  which  will  not  suffer  any  man  to  enter  the  city  ex- 
cept in  an  honorable  manner,  had  come,  or  even  our  prosec1 
himself — if  Postumius  had  come  to  meet  him  with  a  numerous 
crowd  of  his  dependents?  What  is  there  strange  in  such  a 
multitude?  I  say  nothing  of  his  clients,  his  neighbors,  his 
tribesmen,  or  the  whole  army  of  Lticullus,  which,  just  at  that 
time,  had  come  to  Rome  to  his  triumph ;  I  say  this,  that  that 
crowd,  paying  that  gratuitous  mark  of  respect,  was  never  back- 
ward in  paying  respect  not  only  to  the  merit  of  anyone,  but 
even  to  his  wishes. 

"  I'm  a  great  many  people  followed  him."  Prove  that  it 
was  for  hire,  and  I  will  admit  that  that  was  a  crime;  but  if  tin- 
fact  of  hire  be  absent,  what  is  there  that  you  object  to? 

"  What  need  is  there,"  says  he,  "of  an  escort?"  Are  you 
asking  me  what  is  the  need  of  that  which  we  have  always  availed 
ourselves  of?  Men  of  the  lower  orders  have  only  one  oppor- 
tunity of  deserving  kindness  at  the  hands  of  our  order,  or  of 
requiting  services — namely,  this  one  attention  of  escorting  us 
when  we  are  candidates  for  offices.  For  it  is  neither  possible, 
nor  ought  we  or  the  Roman  knights  to  require  them  to  escort 
the  candidates  to  whom  they  are  attached  for  whole  days  to- 
gether: but  if  our  house  is  frequented  by  them,  if  we  are  some- 
times escorted  to  the  forum,  if  we  are  honored  by  their  attend- 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS   MURENA       103 

ance  for  the  distance  of  one  piazza,  we  then  appear  to  be  treated 
with  all  due  observance  and  respect;  and  those  are  the  atten- 
tions of  our  poorer  friends  who  are  not  hindered  by  business, 
of  whom  numbers  are  not  wont  to  desert  virtuous  and  benefi- 
cent men.  Do  not,  then,  O  Cato,  deprive  the  lower  class  of 
men  of  this  power  of  showing  their  dutiful  feelings ;  allow  these 
men,  who  hope  for  everything  from  us,  to  have  something  also 
themselves,  which  they  may  be  able  to  give  us.  If  they  have 
nothing  beyond  their  own  vote,  that  is  but  little ;  since  they  have 
no  interest  which  they  can  exert  in  the  votes  of  others.  They 
themselves,  as  they  are  accustomed  to  say,  cannot  plead  for  us, 
cannot  go  bail  for  us,  cannot  invite  us  to  their  houses ;  but  they 
ask  all  these  things  of  us,  and  do  not  think  that  they  can  requite 
the  services  which  they  receive  from  us  by  anything  but  by  their 
attentions  of  this  sort.  Therefore  they  resisted  the  Fabian  law, 
which  regulated  the  number  of  an  escort,  and  the  resolution  of 
the  Senate,  which  was  passed  in  the  consulship  of  Lucius  Caesar. 
For  there  is  no  punishment  which  can  prevent  the  regard 
shown  by  the  poorer  classes  for  this  description  of  attention. 
"  But  spectacles  were  exhibited  to  the  people  by  their  tribes, 
and  crowds  of  the  common  people  were  invited  to  dinner." 
Although  this,  O  judges,  was  not  done  by  Murena  at  all,  but 
done  in  accordance  with  all  usage  and  precedent  by  his  friends, 
still,  being  reminded  of  the  fact,  I  recollect  how  many  votes 
these  investigations  held  in  the  Senate  have  lost  us,  O  Servius. 
For  what  time  was  there  ever,  either  within  our  own  recollec- 
tion or  that  of  our  fathers,  in  which  this,  whether  you  call  it 
ambition  or  liberality,  did  not  exist,  to  the  extent  of  giving  a 
place  in  the  circus  and  in  the  forum  to  one's  friends,  and  to  the 
men  of  one's  own  tribe?  The  men  of  the  poorer  classes  first, 
who  had  not  yet  obtained  this  from  those  of  their  own  tribe. 

It  is  known  that  the  prefect  of  the  carpenters11  once  gave  a 
place  to  the  men  of  his  own  tribe.  What  will  they  decide  with 
respect  to  the  eminent  men  who  have  erected  regular  stalls  in 
the  circus,  for  the  sake  of  their  own  tribesmen?  All  these 
charges  of  escort,  of  spectacles,  of  dinners,  are  brought  for- 

11  Besides  the  classes  into  which  the  penters,  who  were  attached  to  the  cen- 

centuries    were    divided,    and    the    four  turies  of  the  first  class;  the  cornicines, 

supernumerary  centuries  of  ascensi,  ve-  or  horn-blowers,  and  liticines,  or  trum- 

lati,   proletarii,   and   capite   censi,   there  peters,    who    were    reckoned    with    the 

were   three   centuries  classed   according  fourth  class, 
to  their  occupation.     The  fabri,  or  car- 


104 


CICERO 


ward  by  the  multitude,  O  Scrvius,  as  proofs  of  your  overscru- 
pulous diligence;  but  still  as  to  those  counts  of  the  indictment, 
Mir  <.-fended  by  the  authority  of  the  Senate.  And  why 

not?  Does  the  Senate  think  it  a  crime  to  go  to  meet  a  man? 
No;  but  it  does,  if  it  be  done  for  a  bribe.  Prove  that  it  was  so. 
Does  the  Senate  think  it  a  crime  for  many  men  to  follow  him? 
No;  but  it  does,  if  they  were  hired.  Prove  it.  Or  to  give  a 
man  a  place  to  see  the  spectacles?  or  to  ask  a  man  to  dinner? 
Not  by  any  means;  but  to  give  everyone  a  seat,  to  ask  every- 
one one  meets  to  dinner.  "  What  is  evcryoi  Why,  the 
whole  body  of  citizens.  If,  then,  Lucius  Natta,  a  young  man  of 
the  highest  rank,  as  to  whom  we  see  already  of  what  sort  of  dis- 
position he  is,  and  what  sort  of  man  he  is  likely  to  turn  out, 
wished  to  be  popular  among  the  centuries  of  the  knights,  both 
because  of  his  natural  connection  with  them,  and  because  of  his 
intentions  as  to  the  future,  that  will  not  be  a  crime  in,  or  matter 
of  accusation  against  his  step-father;  nor,  if  a  vestal  virgin,  my 
client's  near  relation,  gave  up  her  place  to  see  the  spectacle  in 
his  favor,  was  that  any  other  than  a  pious  action,  nor  is  he  liable 
to  any  charge  on  that  ground.  All  these  are  the  kind  offices  of 
intimate  friends,  the  services  done  to  the  poorer  classes,  the 
regular  privileges  of  candidates. 

But  I  must  change  my  tone;  for  Cato  argues  with  me  on  rigid 
and  stoic  principles.  He  says  that  it  is  not  true  that  good-will 
is  conciliated  by  food.  He  says  that  men's  judgments,  in  the 
important  business  of  electing  to  magistracies,  ought  not  to  be 
corrupted  by  pleasures.  Therefore,  if  anyone,  to  promote  his 
canvass,  invites  another  to  supper,  he  must  be  condemned. 
"  Shall  you,"  says  he,  "seek  to  obtain  supreme  power,  supreme 
authority,  and  the  helm  of  the  republic,  by  encouraging  men's 
sensual  appetites,  by  soothing  their  minds,  by  tendering  luxu- 
ries to  them?  Are  you  asking  employment  as  a  pimp  from  a 
band  of  luxurious  youths,  or  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  from 
the  Roman  people?"  An  extraordinary  sort  of  speech!  but 
our  usages,  our  way  of  living,  our  manners,  and  the  constitution 
itself,  rejects  it.  For  the  Lacedaemonians,  the  original  authors 
of  that  way  of  living  and  of  that  sort  of  language,  men  who  lie  at 
their  daily  meals  on  hard  oak  benches,  and  the  Cretans,  of  whom 
no  one  ever  lies  down  to  eat  at  all,  have  neither  of  them  pre- 
served their  political  constitutions  or  their  power  better  than 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA       105 

the  Romans,  who  set  apart  times  for  pleasure  as  well  as  times 
for  labor;  for  one  of  those  nations  was  destroyed  by  a  single 
invasion  of  our  army,  the  other  only  preserves  its  discipline  and 
its  laws  by  means  of  the  protection  afforded  to  it  by  our  su- 
premacy. 

Do  not,  then,  O  Cato,  blame  with  too  great  severity  of  lan- 
guage the  principles  of  our  ancestors,  which  facts,  and  the  length 
of  time  that  our  power  has  flourished  under  them,  justify. 
There  was,  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors,  a  learned  man  of  the 
same  sect,  an  honorable  citizen,  and  one  of  high  rank,  Quintus 
Tubero.  He,  when  Quintus  Maximus  was  giving  a  feast  to  the 
Roman  people,  in  the  name  of  his  uncle  Africanus,  was  asked  by 
Maximus  to  prepare  a  couch  for  the  banquet,  as  Tubero  was  a 
son  of  the  sister  of  the  same  Africanus.  And  he,  a  most  learned 
man  and  a  Stoic,  covered  for  that  occasion  some  couches  made 
in  the  Carthaginian  fashion,  with  skins  of  kids,  and  exhibited 
some  Samian12  vessels,  as  if  Diogenes  the  Cynic  had  been  dead, 
and  not  as  if  he  were  paying  respect  to  the  obsequies  of  that 
godlike  Africanus;  a  man  with  respect  to  whom  Maximus, 
when  he  was  pronouncing  his  funeral  panegyric  on  the  day  of 
his  death,  expressed  his  gratitude  to  the  immortal  gods  for  hav- 
ing caused  that  man  to  be  born  in  this  republic  above  all  others, 
for  that  it  was  quite  inevitable  that  the  sovereignty  of  the  world 
must  belong  to  that  state  of  which  he  was  a  citizen.  At  the  cele- 
bration of  the  obsequies  of  such  a  man  the  Roman  people  was 
very  indignant  at  the  perverse  wisdom  of  Tubero,  and  there- 
fore he,  a  most  upright  man,  a  most  virtuous  citizen,  though  he 
was  the  grandson  of  Lucius  Paullus,  the  sister's  son,  as  I  have 
said  before,  of  Publius  Africanus,  lost  the  praetorship  by  his  kid- 
skins. 

The  Roman  people  disapproves  of  private  luxury,  but  ad- 
mires public  magnificence.  It  does  not  love  profuse  banquets, 
still  less  does  it  love  sordid  and  uncivilized  behavior.  It  makes  a 
proper  distinction  between  different  duties  and  different  sea- 
sons, and  allows  of  vicissitudes  of  labor  and  pleasure.  For  as 
to  what  you  say,  that  it  is  not  right  for  men's  minds  to  be  in- 
fluenced, in  appointing  magistrates,  by  any  other  consideration 
than  that  of  the  worth  of  the  candidates,  this  principle  even  you 

M  Samian  vessels  were  made  of  an  inferior  earthen-ware;  Carthaginian  couches 
were  very  low  and  narrow. 


io6  CICERO 

yourself— you,  a  man  of  the  greatest  worth— do  not  in  every 
case  adhere  to.  For  why  do  you  ask  anyone  to  take  pain> 
you,  to  assist  you?  You  ask  me  to  make  you  governor  over 
myself,  to  intrust  myself  to  you.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this? 
Ought  I  to  be  asked  this  by  you,  or  should  not  you  rather  be 
asked  by  me  to  undertake  labor  and  danger  for  the  sake  of  my 
safety?  Nay  in<  >rc,  why  is  it  that  you  have  a  nomenclator1*  with 
you?  for  in  so  doing,  you  arc  practicing  a  trick  and  a  dt 
For  if  it  be  an  honorable  thing  for  your  fellow-citizens  to  be  ad- 
dressed by  name  by  you,  it  is  a  shameful  thing  for  them  to  be 
better  known  to  your  servant  than  to  yourself.  If,  though  you 
know  them  yourself,  it  seems  better  to  use  a  prompter,  why  do 
you  sometimes  address  them  before  he  has  whispered  their 
names  in  your  ear?  Why,  again,  when  he  has  reminded  you  of 
them,  do  you  salute  them  as  if  you  knew  them  yourself?  And 
why,  after  you  are  once  elected,  are  you  more  careless  about 
saluting  them  at  all?  If  you  regulate  all  these  things  by  the 
usages  of  the  city,  it  is  all  right;  but  if  you  choose  to  weigh  them 
by  the  precepts  of  your  sect,  they  will  be  found  to  be  entirely 
wrong.  Those  enjoyments,  then,  of  games,  and  gladiators,  and 
banquets,  all  which  our  ancestors  desired,  are  not  to  be  taken 
away  from  the  Roman  people,  nor  ought  candidates  to  be  for- 
bidden the  exercise  of  that  kindness  which  is  liberality  rather 
than  bribery. 

Oh,  but  it  is  the  interest  of  the  republic  that  has  induced  you 
to  become  a  prosecutor.  I  do  believe,  O  Cato,  that  you  have 
come  forward  under  the  influence  of  those  feelings  and  of  that 
opinion.  But  you  err  out  of  ignorance.  That  which  I  am 
doing,  O  judges,  I  am  doing  out  of  regard  to  my  friendship  for 
Lucius  Murena  and  to  his  own  worth,  and  I  also  do  assert  and 
call  you  all  to  witness  that  I  am  doing  it  for  the  sake  of  peace,  of 
tranquillity,  of  concord,  of  liberty,  of  safety — ay,  even  for  the 
sake  of  the  lives  of  us  all.  Listen,  O  judges,  listen  to  the  con- 
sul— I  will  not  speak  with  undue  arrogance,  I  will  only  say,  who 
devotes  all  his  thoughts  day  and  night  to  the  republic.  Lucius 
Catiline  did  not  despise  and  scorn  the  republic  to  such  a  degree 
as  to  think  that  with  the  forces  which  he  took  away  with  him 
he  could  subdue  this  city.  The  contagion  of  that  wickedness 

u  The  nomenclator  was  a  slave  who  one  he  met.  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
accompanied  the  candidate  in  going  his  accost  them  as  if  they  were  personally 
rounds,  and  told  him  the  name  of  every-  known  to  himself. 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA       107 

spreads  more  widely  than  anyone  believes:  more  men  are  im- 
plicated in  it  than  people  are  aware  of.  It  is  within  the  city — 
the  Trojan  horse,  I  say,  is  within  the  city;  but  you  shall  never 
be  surprised  sleeping  by  that  while  I  am  consul.  You  ask  of 
me  why  I  am  afraid  of  Catiline?  I  am  not;  and  I  have  taken 
care  that  no  one  should  have  any  reason  to  be  afraid  of  him ;  but 
I  do  say  that  those  soldiers  of  his,  whom  I  see  present  here,  are 
objects  of  fear:  nor  is  the  army  which  Lucius  Catiline  now  has 
with  him  as  formidable  as  those  men  are  who  are  said  to  have 
deserted  that  army;  for  they  have  not  deserted  it,  but  they  have 
been  left  by  him  as  spies,  as  men  placed  in  ambuscade,  to 
threaten  our  lives  and  liberties.  Those  men  are  very  anxious 
that  an  upright  consul  and  an  able  general,  a  man  connected 
both  by  nature  and  by  fortune  with  the  safety  of  the  republic, 
should  by  your  decision  be  removed  from  the  office  of  protecting 
the  city,  from  the  guardianship  of  the  state.  Their  swords  and 
their  audacity  I  have  procured  the  rejection  of  in  the  campus,  I 
have  disarmed  them  in  the  forum,  I  have  often  checked  them  at 
my  own  house;  but  if  you  now  give  them  up  one  of  the  consuls, 
they  will  have  gained  much  more  by  your  votes  than  by  their 
own  swords.  That  which  I,  in  spite  of  the  resistance  of  many, 
have  managed  and  carried  through,  namely,  that  on  the  first  of 
January  there  should  be  two  consuls  in  the  republic,  is  of  great 
consequence,  O  judges.  Never  believe  that  by  consuls  of  mod- 
erate abilities,  or  by  the  ordinary  modes  of  proceeding 

It  is  not  some  unjust  law,  some  mischievous  bribery,  or  some 
improprieties  in  the  republic  that  have  just  been  heard  of,  that 
are  the  real  objects  for  your  inquiry  now.  Plans  have  been 
formed  in  this  state,  O  judges,  for  destroying  the  city,  for  mas- 
sacring the  citizens,  for  extinguishing  the  Roman  name.  They 
are  citizens — citizens,  I  say  (if  indeed  it  is  lawful  to  call  them  by 
this  name),  who  are  forming  and  have  formed  these  plans  re- 
specting their  own  country.  Every  day  I  am  counteracting 
their  designs,  disarming  their  audacity,  resisting  their  wicked- 
ness. But  I  warn  you,  O  judges;  my  consulship  is  now  just  at 
an  end.  Do  not  refuse  me  a  successor  in  my  diligence;  do  not 
refuse  me  him,  to  whom  I  am  anxious  to  deliver  over  the  repub- 
lic in  a  sound  condition,  that  he  may  defend  it  from  these  great 
dangers. 


io8  CICERO 

And  do  you  not  sec,  O  judges,  what  other  evil  there  is  added 
to  these  evils?  I  am  addressing  you — you,  O  Cato.  Do  you 
not  foresee  a  storm  in  your  year  of  office?  for  in  yesterday's  as- 
sembly there  thundered  out  the  mischievous  voice  of  a  tribune 
elect,14  one  of  your  own  colleagues ;  against  whom  your  < 
mind  took  many  precautions,  and  so  too  did  all  good  men,  when 
they  invited  you  to  stand  for  the  tribuncship.  Everything 
which  has  been  plotted  for  the  last  three  years,  from  the  time 
when  you  know  that  the  design  of  massacring  the  Senate  was 
first  formed  by  Lucius  Catiline  and  by  Cnaeus  Piso,  is  now 
breaking  out  on  these  days,  in  these  months,  at  this  time.  What 
place  is  there,  O  judges,  what  time,  what  day,  what  night  is 
there,  that  I  have  not  been  delivered  and  escaped  from  their 
plots  and  attacks,  not  only  by  my  own  prudence,  but  much  more 
by  the  providence  of  the  gods?  It  was  not  that  they  wished  to 
slay  me  as  an  individual,  but  that  they  wished  to  get  rid  of  a 
vigilant  consul,  and  to  remove  him  from  the  guardianship  of  the 
republic;  and  they  would  be  just  as  glad,  O  Cato,  to  remove  you 
too,  if  they  could  by  any  means  contrive  to  do  so;  and  believe 
me,  that  is  what  they  are  wishing  and  planning  to  do.  They  see 
how  much  courage,  how  much  ability,  how  much  authority, 
how  much  protection  for  the  republic  there  is  in  you ;  but  they 
think  that,  when  they  have  once  seen  the  power  of  the  tribunes 
stripped  of  the  support  which  it  derives  from  the  authority  and 
assistance  of  the  consuls,  they  will  then  find  it  easier  to  crush 
you  when  you  are  deprived  of  your  arms  and  vigor.  For  they 
have  no  fear  of  another  consul  being  elected  in  the  place  of  this 
one;  they  see  that  that  will  depend  upon  your  colleagues;  they 
hope  that  Silanus,  an  illustrious  man,  will  be  exposed  to  their 
attacks  without  any  colleague;  and  that  so  will  you  without  any 
consul;  and  that  so  will  the  republic  without  any  protector. 
When  such  are  our  circumstances,  and  such  our  perils,  it  be- 
comes you,  O  Marcus  Cato,  who  have  been  born,  not  for  my 
good,  nor  for  your  own  good,  but  for  that  of  your  country,  to 
perceive  what  are  their  real  objects;  to  retain  as  your  assistant, 
and  defender,  and  partner  in  the  republic,  a  consul  who  has  no 
private  desires  to  gratify,  a  consul  (as  this  season  particularly  re- 
quires) formed  by  fortune  to  court  ease,  but  by  knowledge  to 

14  He  means  Quintus  Metellus  Nepos,        hi*  making  an  address  to  the  people  on 
the  same  man  who  afterward  prevented        his  resigning  his  consulship. 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA       109 

carry  on  war,  and  by  courage  and  practice  to  discharge  in  a 
proper  manner  whatever  business  you  can  impose  upon  him. 

Although  the  whole  power  of  providing  for  this  rests  with 
you,  O  judges — you  in  this  cause,  are  the  masters  and  directors 
of  the  whole  republic — if  Lucius  Catiline,  with  his  council  of  in- 
famous men  whom  he  took  out  with  him,  could  give  his  decision 
in  this  case,  he  would  condemn  Lucius  Murena;  if  he  could  put 
him  to  death,  he  would.  For  his  plans  require  the  republic  to 
be  deprived  of  every  sort  of  aid;  they  require  the  number  of 
generals  who  may  be  opposed  to  his  frenzy  to  be  diminished; 
they  require  that  greater  power  should  be  given  to  the  tribunes 
of  the  people,  when  they  have  driven  away  their  adversary,  to 
raise  sedition  and  discord.  Will,  then,  thoroughly  honorable 
and  wise  men,  chosen  out  of  the  most  dignified  orders  of  the 
state,  give  the  same  decision  that  most  profligate  gladiator,  the 
enemy  of  the  republic,  would  give?  Believe  me,  O  judges,  in 
this  case  you  are  deciding  not  only  about  the  safety  of  Lucius 
Murena,  but  also  on  your  own.  We  are  in  a  situation  of  ex- 
treme danger;  there  is  no  means  now  of  repairing  the  losses 
which  we  have  already  sustained,  or  of  recovering  the  ground 
which  we  have  lost.  We  must  take  care  not  only  not  to  diminish 
the  resources  which  we  still  have,  but  to  provide  ourselves  with 
additional  ones  if  that  be  possible.  For  the  enemy  is  not  on  the 
Anio,  which  in  the  time  of  the  Punic  War  appeared  a  most  ter- 
rible thing,  but  he  is  in  the  city,  in  the  forum  (O  ye  immortal 
gods!  this  connot  be  said  without  a  groan) ;  there  are  even  some 
enemies  in  this  sacred  temple  of  the  republic,  in  the  very  senate- 
house  itself.  May  the  gods  grant  that  my  colleague,  that  most 
gallant  man,  may  be  able  in  arms  to  overtake  and  crush  this 
impious  piratical  war  of  Catiline's.  I,  in  the  garb  of  peace,  with 
you  and  all  virtuous  men  for  my  assistants,  will  endeavor  by  my 
prudence  to  divide  and  destroy  the  dangers  which  the  republic 
is  pregnant  with  and  about  to  bring  forth.  But  still,  what  will 
be  the  consequences  if  these  things  slip  through  our  hands  and 
remain  in  vigor  till  the  ensuing  year?  There  will  be  but  one 
consul ;  and  he  will  have  sufficient  occupation,  not  in  conduct- 
ing a  war,  but  in  managing  the  election  of  a  colleague.  There 
are  some  prepared  to  hinder  him. 

That  intolerable  pest  will  break  forth  wherever  it  can  find 
room;  and  even  now  it  is  threatening  the  Roman  people;  soon 


,,o  CICERO 

it  will  descend  upon  the  suburban  districts;  frenzy  will  range  at 
ong  the  camp,  fear  in  the  senate-house,  c<  in 

tin  iormn.  an  army  in  the  Campus  Martius,  and  devastation  all 
over  tlu-  country.  In  every  habitation,  and  in  every  place,  we 
shall  live  in  fear  of  fire  and  sword.  And  yet  all  these  c\ 
which  have  been  so  long  making  ready  against  us,  if  the  republic 
is  fortified  by  its  natural  means  of  protection,  will  be  easily  put 
down  by  the  counsels  of  the  magistrates  and  the  diligence  of 
private  individuals. 

And  as  this  is  the  case,  O  judges,  in  the  first  place  for  the  sake 
of  the  republic,  than  which  nothing  ought  to  be  of  more  impor- 
tance in  the  eyes  of  everyone,  I  do  warn  you,  as  I  am  entitled  to 
do  by  my  extreme  diligence  in  the  cause  of  the  republic,  which 
is  well  known  to  all  of  you — I  do  exhort  you,  as  my  consular 
authority  gives  me  a  right  to  do— I  do  entreat  you,  as  the  magni- 
tude of  the  danger  justifies  me  in  doing,  to  provide  for  the  tran- 
quillity, for  the  peace,  for  the  safety,  for  the  lives  of  yourselves 
and  of  all  the  rest  of  your  fellow-citizens.  In  the  next  place  I 
do  appeal  to  your  good  faith,  O  judges  (whether  you  may  think 
that  I  do  so  in  the  spirit  of  an  advocate  or  a  friend  signifies  but 
little),  and  beg  of  you  not  to  overwhelm  the  recent  exaltation  of 
Lucius  Murcna,  an  unfortunate  man,  of  one  oppressed  both  by 
bodily  disease  and  by  vexation  of  mind,  by  a  fresh  cause  for 
mourning.  He  has  been  lately  distinguished  by  the  greatest 
kindness  of  the  Roman  people,  and  has  seemed  fortunate  in 
being  the  first  man  to  bring  the  honors  of  the  consulship  into  an 
old  family,  and  a  most  ancient  municipality.  Now,  in  a  mourn- 
ing and  unbecoming  garb,  debilitated  by  sickness,  worn  out 
with  tears  and  grief,  he  is  a  suppliant  to  you,  O  judges,  invoking 
your  good  faith,  imploring  your  pity,  fixing  all  his  hopes  on 
your  power  and  your  assistance.  Do  not,  in  the  name  of  the 
immortal  gods,  O  judges,  deprive  him  not  only  of  that  office 
which  he  thought  conferred  additional  honor  on  him,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  all  the  honors  which  he  had  gained  before,  and  of 
all  his  dignity  and  fortune.  And,  O  judges,  what  Lucius  Mure- 
na  is  begging  and  entreating  of  you  is  no  more  than  this ;  that  if 
he  has  done  no  injury  unjustly  to  anyone,  if  he  has  offended  no 
man's  ears  or  inclination,  if  he  has  never  (to  say  the  least)  given 
anyone  reason  to  hate  him  either  at  home  or  when  engaged  in 
war,  he  may  in  that  case  find  among  you  moderation  in  judging, 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  LUCIUS  MURENA        m 

and  a  refuge  for  men  in  dejection,  and  assistance  for  modest 
merit.  The  deprivation  of  the  consulship  is  a  measure  calcu- 
lated to  excite  great  feelings  of  pity,  O  judges.  For  with  the 
consulship  everything  else  is  taken  away  too.  And  at  such 
times  as  these  the  consulship  itself  is  hardly  a  thing  to  envy  a 
man.  For  it  is  exposed  to  the  harangues  of  seditious  men,  to 
the  plots  of  conspirators,  to  the  attacks  of  Catiline.  It  is  op- 
posed single-handed  to  every  danger,  and  to  every  sort  of  un- 
popularity. So  that,  O  judges,  I  do  not  see  what  there  is  in 
this  beautiful  consulship  which  need  be  grudged  to  Murena,  or 
to  any  other  man  among  us.  But  those  things  in  it  which  are 
calculated  to  make  a  man  an  object  of  pity,  are  visible  to  my 
eyes,  and  you  too  can  clearly  see  and  comprehend  them. 

If  (may  Jupiter  avert  the  omen)  you  condemn  this  man  by 
your  decision,  where  is  the  unhappy  man  to  turn?  Home? 
What,  that  he  may  see  that  image  of  that  most  illustrious  man 
his  father,  which  a  few  days  ago  he  beheld  crowned  with  laurel 
when  men  were  congratulating  him  on  his  election,  now  in 
mourning  and  lamentation  at  his  disgrace?  Or  to  his  mother, 
who,  wretched  woman,  having  lately  embraced  her  son  as  con- 
sul, is  now  in  all  the  torments  of  anxiety,  lest  she  should  but  a 
short  time  afterward  behold  that  same  son  stripped  of  all  his 
dignity?  But  why  do  I  speak  of  his  home  or  of  his  mother, 
when  the  new  punishment  of  the  law  deprives  him  of  home,  and 
parent,  and  of  the  intercourse  with  and  sight  of  all  his  relations  ? 
Shall  the  wretched  man  then  go  into  banishment?  Whither 
shall  he  go  ?  Shall  he  go  to  the  east,  where  he  was  for  many 
years  lieutenant,  where  he  commanded  armies,  and  performed 
many  great  exploits  ?  But  it  is  a  most  painful  thing  to  return 
to  a  place  in  disgrace,  from  which  you  have  departed  in  honor. 
Shall  he  hide  himself  in  the  opposite  regions  of  the  earth,  so 
as  to  let^  Transalpine  Gaul  see  the  same  man  grieving  and 
mourning,  whom  it  lately  saw  with  the  greatest  joy,  exercising 
the  highest  authority?  In  that  same  province,  moreover,  with 
what  feelings  will  he  behold  Caius  Murena,  his  own  brother? 
What  will  be  the  grief  of  the  one,  what  will  be  the  agony  of  the 
other?  What  will  be  the  lamentations  of  both?  How  great 
will  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  appear,  and  what  a  change  will 
there  be  in  everyone's  conversation,  when  in  the  very  places  in 
which  a  few  days  before  messengers  and  letters  had  repeated, 


us  CICERO 

with  every  indication  of  joy,  that  Murena  had  IK-CD  made  o>: 
— in  the  very  places  fn>m  which  his  own  frit-mis  and  his  lui 

connections  Mocked  to  Rome  purpose  of  congratu- 

lating him,  he  himself  arrive  .  >n  a  sudden  a^  the  mcsscnge; 
his  own  misfortune!    And  if  these  things  seem  bitter,  and  i 
erable,  and  grievous — if  they  are  most  foreign  to  your  general 
clemency  and  merciful  disposition,  O  judges,  then  maintain  the 
kindness  done  to  him  by  the  Roman  people  ;  restore  the  consul 
to  the  republic ;  grant  this  to  his  own  modesty,  grant  it  to  his 
dead  father,  grant  it  to  his  race  and  family,  grant  it  als< 
Lanuvium,  that  most  honorable  municipality,  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  which  you  have  seen  watching  this  cause  with  t 
and  mourning.     Do  not  tear  from  his  ancestral  sacrifices  to 
Juno  Sospita,  to  whom  all  consuls  are  bound  to  offer  sacrifice, 
a  consul  who  is  so  peculiarly  her  own.    Him,  if  my  recommen- 
dation has  any  weight,  if  my  solemn  assertion  has  any  author- 
ity, I  now  recommend  to  you,  O  judges — I  the  consul  recom- 
mend him  to  you  as  consul,  promising  and  undertaking  that  he 
will  prove  most  desirous  of  tranquillity,  most  anxious  to  con- 
sult the  interests  of  virtuous  men,  very  active  against  sedition, 
very  brave  in  war,  and  an  irreconcilable  enemy  to  this  con- 
spiracy, which  is  at  this  moment  seeking  to  undermine  the 
republic. 


JULIUS  CAESAR. 

from  a  bust  in  tbe  Brittsb  Musfwn  .. 

culptor  who  has  succeeded  in  representing  (be  u. 


.Iptor  in  the  year  55  i 
Id,  and  bad  just  completed  the  destruction  of  the  Pompeiiao  party  and 

f  his  ambition.     The  Senate  that  year  made  Mo 
-   proclaimed  him  a  god,  and  named  one  of  the  months,  July,  after  him. 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF 
PUBLIUS  SYLLA 


THE   ARGUMENT 

Publius  Sylla  having  been  elected  consul  with  Publius  Autronius 
four  years  before,  had  been  impeached  for  bribery,  convicted,  and 
deprived  of  his  consulship.  He  had  then  been  prosecuted  by  Tor- 
quatus.  He  was  now  impeached  by  the  younger  Torquatus,  the  son 
of  his  former  prosecutor,  as  having  been  implicated  in  both  of  Cati- 
line's conspiracies.  (Autronius  was  accused  also,  and  he  also  applied 
to  Cicero  to  defend  him,  but  Cicero,  being  convinced  that  he  was 
guilty,  not  only  refused  to  defend  him,  but  appeared  as  a  witness 
against  him.)  Torquatus's  real  motive  appears  to  have  been  jealousy 
of  the  fame  which  Cicero  had  obtained  in  his  consulship;  and,  in  his 
speech  for  the  prosecution,  when  he  found  that  Cicero  had  undertaken 
Sylla's  cause,  he  had  attacked  Cicero  himself,  and  tried  to  bring  him 
into  unpopularity,  calling  him  a  king  who  assumed  a  power  to  save 
or  to  destroy  just  as  he  thought  fit;  and  saying  that  he  was  the  third 
foreign  king  that  had  reigned  in  Rome;  Numa  and  Tarquin  being 
the  two  former.  Sylla  was  acquitted 


114 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF   PUBLIUS  SYLLA 

I  SHOULD  have  been  very  glad,  O  judges,  if  Publius  Sylla 
had  been  able  formerly  to  retain  the  honor  of  the  dignity 
to  which  he  was  appointed,  and  had  been  allowed,  after 
the  misfortune  which  befell  him,  to  derive  some  reward  from 
his  moderation  in  adversity.  But  since  his  unfriendly  fortune 
has  brought  it  about  that  he  has  been  damaged,  even  at  a  time 
of  his  greatest  honor,  by  the  unpopularity  ensuing  not  only 
from  the  common  envy  which  pursues  ambitious  men,  but  also 
by  the  singular  hatred  in  which  Autronius  is  held,  and  that 
even  in  this  sad  and  deplorable  wreck  of  his  former  fortunes, 
he  has  still  some  enemies  whose  hostility  he  is  unable  to  appease 
by  the  punishment  which  has  fallen  upon  him :  although  I  am 
very  greatly  concerned  at  his  distresses,  yet  in  his  other  mis- 
fortunes I  can  easily  endure  that  an  opportunity  should  be  of- 
fered to  me  of  causing  virtuous  men  to  recognize  my  lenity 
and  merciful  disposition,  which  was  formerly  known  to  every 
one,  but  which  has  of  late  been  interrupted  as  it  were ;  and  of 
forcing  wicked  and  profligate  citizens,  being  again  defeated  and 
vanquished,  to  confess  that,  when  the  republic  was  in  danger, 
I  was  energetic  and  fearless ;  now  that  it  is  saved,  I  am  lenient 
and  merciful.  And  since  Lucius  Torquatus,  O  judges,  my  own 
most  intimate  friend,  O  judges,  has  thought  that,  if  he  vio- 
lated our  friendship  and  intimacy  somewhat  in  his  speech  for 
the  prosecution,  he  could  by  that  means  detract  a  little  from 
the  authority  of  my  defence,  I  will  unite  with  my  endeavors  to 
ward  off  danger  from  my  client,  a  defence  of  my  own  conduct 
in  the  discharge  of  my  duty.  Not  that  I  would  employ  that  sort 
of  speech  at  present,  O  judges,  if  my  own  interest  alone  were 
concerned,  for  on  many  occasions  and  in  many  places  I  have 
had,  and  I  often  shall  have,  opportunities  of  speaking  of  my 
own  credit.  But  as  he,  O  judges,  has  thought  that  the  more  he 
could  take  away  from  my  authority,  the  more  also  he  would  be 

"5 


n6  CICERO 

diminishing  my  client's  means  of  protection ;  I  also  think,  that 
if  I  can  induce  you  to  approve  of  the  principles  of  my  conduct, 
and  my  wisdom  in  this  discharge  of  my  duty  and  in  undertak- 
ing this  defence,  I  shall  also  induce  you  to  look  favorably  on 
the  cause  of  Publius  Sylla.  And  in  the  first  place,  O  Torqua- 
tus,  I  ask  you  this,  why  you  should  separate  me  from  the 
other  illustrious  and  chief  men  of  this  city,  in  regard  to  this 
duty,  and  to  the  right  of  defending  clients?  For  what  is  the 
reason  why  the  act  of  Quintus  Hortensius,  a  most  illustrious 
man  and  a  most  accomplished  citizen,  is  not  blamed  by  you,  and 
mine  is  blamed  ?  For  if  a  design  of  firing  the  city,  and  of 
tinguishing  this  empire,  and  of  destroying  this  city,  was  enter- 
tained by  Publius  Sylla,  ought  not  such  projects  to  raise  greater 
indignation  and  greater  hatred  against  their  authors  in  me 
than  in  Quintus  Hortensius?  Ought  not  my  opinion  to  be 
more  severe  in  such  a  matter,  as  to  whom  I  should  think  fit  to 
assist  in  these  causes,  whom  to  oppose,  whom  to  defend,  and 
whom  to  abandon?  No  doubt,  says  he,  for  it  was  you  who 
investigated,  you  who  laid  open  the  whole  conspiracy. 

And  when  he  says  this,  he  does  not  perceive  that  the  man 
who  laid  it  open  took  care  that  all  men  should  see  that  which 
had  previously  been  hidden.  Wherefore  that  conspiracy,  if 
it  was  laid  open  by  me,  is  now  as  evident  in  all  its  particulars 
to  Hortensius  as  it  is  to  me.  And  when  you  see  that  he,  a  man 
of  such  rank,  and  authority,  and  virtue,  and  wisdom,  has  not 
hesitated  to  defend  this  innocent  Publius  Sylla,  I  ask  why  the 
access  to  the  cause  which  was  open  to  Hortensius,  ought  to  be 
closed  against  me?  I  ask  this  also — if  you  think  that  I,  who 
defend  him,  am  to  be  blamed,  what  do  you  think  of  those  ex- 
cellent men  and  most  illustrious  citizens,  by  whose  zeal  and 
dignified  presence  you  perceive  that  this  trial  is  attended,  by 
whom  the  cause  of  my  client  is  honored,  by  whom  his  inno- 
cence is  upheld  ?  For  that  is  not  the  only  method  of  defending 
a  man's  cause  which  consists  in  speaking  for  him.  All  who 
countenance  him  with  their  presence,  who  show  anxiety  in  his 
behalf,  who  desire  his  safety,  all,  as  far  as  their  opportunities 
allow  or  their  authority  extends,  are  defending  him.  Ought  I 
to  be  unwilling  to  appear  on  these  benches  on  which  I  see  these 
lights  and  ornaments  of  the  republic,  when  it  is  only  by  my 
own  numerous  and  great  labors  and  dangers  that  I  have 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        117 

mounted  into  their  rank,  and  into  this  lofty  position  and  dig- 
nity which  I  now  enjoy?  And  that  you  may  understand,  O 
Torquatus,  whom  you  are  accusing,  if  you  are  offended  that  I, 
who  have  defended  no  one  on  inquiries  of  this  sort,  do  not 
abandon  Publius  Sylla,  remember  also  the  other  men,  whom 
you  see  countenancing  this  man  by  their  presence.  You  will 
see  that  their  opinion  and  mine  has  been  one  and  the  same  about 
this  man's  case,  and  about  that  of  the  others.  Who  of  us  stood 
by  Varguntius?  No  one.  Not  even  this  Quintus  Hortensius, 
the  very  man  who  had  formerly  been  his  only  defender  when 
prosecuted  for  corruption.  For  he  did  not  think  himself  con- 
nected by  any  bond  of  duty  with  that  man,  when  he,  by  the 
commission  of  such  enormous  wickedness,  had  broken  asunder 
the  ties  of  all  duties  whatever.  Who  of  us  countenanced  Ser- 
vius  Sylla?  who  .  .  .  ?  who  of  us  thought  Marcus  Laeca 
or  Caius  Cornelius  fit  to  be  defended  ?  who  of  all  the  men  whom 
you  see  here  gave  the  countenance  of  his  presence  to  any  one 
of  those  criminals?  No  one.  Why  was  that?  Because  in 
other  causes  good  men  think  that  they  ought  not  to  refuse  to 
defend  even  guilty  men,  if  they  are  their  own  intimate  personal 
friends ;  but,  in  this  prosecution,  there  would  not  only  be  the 
fault  of  acting  lightly,  but  there  would  be  even  some  infection 
of  wickedness  which  would  taint  one  who  defended  that  man 
whom  he  suspected  of  being  involved  in  the  guilt  of  planning 
the  parricide  of  his  country.  What  was  the  case  of  Autronius  ? 
did  not  his  companions,  did  not  his  own  colleagues,  did  not  his 
former  friends,  of  whom  he  had  at  one  time  an  ample  number, 
did  not  all  these  men,  who  are  the  chief  men  in  the  republic, 
abandon  him  ?  Ay,  and  many  of  them  even  damaged  him  with 
their  evidence.  They  made  up  their  minds  that  it  was  an  offence 
of  such  enormity,  that  they  not  only  were  bound  to  abstain  from 
doing  anything  to  conceal  it,  but  that  it  was  their  duty  to  reveal 
it,  and  throw  all  the  light  that  they  were  able  upon  it. 

What  reason  is  there  then  for  your  wondering,  if  you  see 
me  countenancing  this  cause  in  company  with  those  men,  whom 
you  know  that  I  also  joined  in  discountenancing  the  other 
causes  by  absenting  myself  from  them.  Unless  you  wish  me  to 
be  considered  a  man  of  eminent  ferocity  before  all  other  men, 
a  man  savage,  inhuman,  and  endowed  with  an  extraordinary 
cruelty  and  barbarity  of  disposition.  If  this  be  the  character 


n8  CICERO 

whu-h.  on  account  of  all  my  exploits,  you  wish  now  to  fix  upon 
my  whole  life,  O  Torquatus,  you  are  greatly  mistaken.  Nature 
made  me  merciful,  my  country  made  me  severe;  but  neither 
my  country  nor  nature  has  ever  required  me  to  be  cruel.  La 
that  same  vehement  and  fierce  character  which  at  that  time  the 
occasion  and  the  republic  imposed  upon  me,  my  own  inclina- 
tion and  nature  itself  has  now  relieved  me  of;  for  my  country 
required  severity  for  a  short  time,  my  nature  requires  clemency 
and  lenity  during  my  whole  life.  There  is,  therefore,  no  i 
tence  for  your  separating  me  from  so  numerous  a  company  of 
most  honorable  men.  Duty  is  a  plain  thing,  and  the  cause  of 
all  men  is  one  and  the  same.  You  will  have  no  reason  to  mar- 
vel hereafter,  whenever  you  see  me  on  the  same  side  as  you 
observe  :  n.  For  there  is  no  side  in  the  republic  in  which 

I  have  a  peculiar  and  exclusive  property.  The  time  for  acting 
did  belong  more  peculiarly  to  me  than  to  the  others ;  but  the 
cause  of  indignation,  and  fear,  and  danger  was  common  to  us 
all.  Nor,  indeed,  could  I  have  been  at  that  time,  as  I  was,  the 
chief  man  in  providing  for  the  safety  of  the  state,  if  others 
had  been  unwilling  to  be  my  companions.  Wherefore,  it  is 
inevitable  that  that  which,  when  I  was  consul,  belonged  to  me 
especially  above  all  other  men,  should,  now  that  I  am  a  private 
individual,  belong  to  me  in  common  with  the  rest.  Nor  do  I 
say  this  for  the  sake  of  sharing  my  unpopularity  with  others, 
but  rather  with  the  object  of  allowing  them  to  partake  of  my 
praises.  I  will  give  a  share  of  my  burden  to  no  one;  but  a 
share  of  my  glory  to  all  good  men.  "  You  gave  evidence 
against  Autronius,"  says  he,  "  and  you  are  defending  Sylla." 
All  this,  O  judges,  has  this  object,  to  prove  that,  if  I  am  an 
inconstant  and  fickle-minded  man,  my  evidence  ought  not  to 
be  credited,  and  my  defence  ought  not  to  carry  any  authority 
with  it.  But  if  there  is  found  in  me  a  proper  consideration 
for  the  republic,  a  scrupulous  regard  to  my  duty,  and  a  con- 
stant desire  to  retain  the  good-will  of  virtuous  men,  then  there 
is  nothing  which  an  accuser  ought  less  to  say  than  that  Sylla 
is  defended  by  me,  but  that  Autronius  was  injured  by  my  evi- 
dence against  him.  For  I  think  that  I  not  only  carry  with  me 
zeal  in  defending  causes,  but  also  that  my  deliberate  opinion 
has  some  weight ;  which,  however,  I  will  use  with  moderation, 
O  judges,  and  I  would  not  have  used  it  at  all  if  he  had  not 
compelled  me. 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        119 

Two  conspiracies  are  spoken  of  by  you,  O  Torquatus ;  one, 
which  is  said  to  have  been  formed  in  the  consulship  of  Lepidus 
and  Volcatius,  when  your  own  father  was  consul  elect;  the 
other,  that  which  broke  out  in  my  consulship.  In  each  of  these 
you  say  that  Sylla  was  implicated.  You  know  that  I  was  not 
acquainted  with  the  counsels  of  your  father,  a  most  brave  man, 
and  a  most  excellent  consul.  You  know,  as  there  was  the  great- 
est intimacy  between  you  and  me,  that  I  knew  nothing  of  what 
happened,  or  of  what  was  said  in  those  times ;  I  imagine,  be- 
cause I  had  not  yet  become  a  thoroughly  public  character,  be- 
cause I  had  not  yet  arrived  at  the  goal  of  honor  which  I  pro- 
posed to  myself,  and  because  my  ambition  and  my  forensic 
labors  separated  me  from  all  political  deliberations.  Who,  then, 
was  present  at  your  counsels?  All  these  men  whom  you  see 
here,  giving  Sylla  the  countenance  of  their  presence;  and 
among  the  first  was  Quintus  Hortensius — who,  by  reason  of 
his  honor  and  worth,  and  his  admirable  disposition  towards  the 
republic,  and  because  of  his  exceeding  intimacy  with  and  ex- 
cessive attachment  to  your  father,  was  greatly  moved  by  the 
thoughts  of  the  common  danger,  and  most  especially  by  the 
personal  peril  of  your  father.  Therefore,  he  was  defended 
from  the  charge  of  being  implicated  in  that  conspiracy  by  that 
man  who  was  present  at  and  acquainted  with  all  your  delibera- 
tions, who  was  a  partner  in  all  your  thoughts  and  in  all  your 
fears ;  and,  elegant  and  argumentative  as  his  speech  in  re- 
pelling this  accusation  was,  it  carried  with  it  as  much  authority 
as  it  displayed  of  ability.  Of  that  conspiracy,  therefore,  which 
is  said  to  have  been  formed  against  you,  to  have  been  reported 
to  you,  and  to  have  been  revealed  by  you,  I  was  unable  to  say 
anything  as  a  witness.  For  I  not  only  found  out  nothing,  but 
scarcely  did  any  report  or  suspicion  of  that  matter  reach  my 
ears.  They  who  were  your  counsellors,  who  became  acquainted 
with  these  things  in  your  company — they  who  were  supposed 
to  be  themselves  menaced  with  that  danger,  who  gave  no 
countenance  to  Autronius,  who  gave  most  important  evidence 
against  him — are  now  defending  Publius  Sylla,  are  countenanc- 
ing him  by  their  presence  here ;  now  that  he  is  in  danger  they 
declare  that  they  were  not  deterred  by  the  accusation  of  con- 
spiracy from  countenancing  the  others,  but  by  the  guilt  of  the 
men.  But  for  the  time  of  my  consulship,  and  with  respect  to 


120 


CICERO 


the  charge  of  the  greatest  conspiracy,  Sylla  shall  be  defended 
by  me.  And  this  partition  of  the  cause  between  Hortensius  and 
me  has  not  been  made  by  chance,  or  at  random,  O  judges,  but, 
as  we  saw  that  we  were  employed  as  defenders  of  a  man  against 
those  accusations  in  which  we  might  have  been  witnesses,  each 
of  us  thought  that  it  would  be  best  for  him  to  undertake  that 
part  of  the  case,  concerning  which  he  himself  had  been  able 
to  acquire  some  knowledge,  and  to  form  some  opinions  with 
certainty. 

And  since  you  have  listened  attentively  to  Hortensius,  while 
speaking  on  the  charge  respecting  the  former  conspiracy,  now, 
I  beg  you,  listen  to  this  first  statement  of  mine  respecting  the 
conspiracy  which  was  formed  in  my  consulship. 

When  I  was  consul  I  heard  many  reports,  I  made  many  in- 
quiries, I  learned  a  great  many  circumstances,  concerning  the 
extreme  peril  of  the  republic.  No  messenger,  no  information, 
no  letters,  no  suspicion  ever  reached  me  at  any  time  in  the  least 
affecting  Sylla.  Perhaps  this  assertion  ought  to  have  great 
weight,  when  coming  from  a  man  who,  as  consul,  had  investi- 
gated the  plots  laid  against  the  republic  with  prudence,  had 
revealed  them  with  sincerity,  had  chastised  them  with  mag- 
nanimity, and  who  says  that  he  himself  never  heard  a  word 
against  Publius  Sylla,  and  never  entertained  a  suspicion  of 
him.  But  I  do  not  as  yet  employ  this  assertion  for  the  purpose 
of  defending  him ;  I  rather  use  it  with  a  view  to  clear  myself, 
in  order  that  Torquatus  may  cease  to  wonder  that  I,  who  would 
not  appear  by  the  side  of  Autronius,  am  now  defending  Sylla. 
For  what  was  the  cause  of  Autronius  ?  and  what  is  the  cause  of 
Sylla?  The  former  tried  to  disturb  and  get  rid  of  a  prosecu- 
tion for  bribery  by  raising  in  the  first  instance  a  sedition  among 
gladiators  and  runaway  slaves,  and  after  that,  as  we  all  saw, 
by  stoning  people,  and  collecting  a  violent  mob.  Sylla,  if  his 
own  modesty  and  worth  could  not  avail  him,  sought  no  other 
assistance.  The  former,  when  he  had  been  convicted,  behaved 
in  such  a  manner,  not  only  in  his  secret  designs  and  conversa- 
tion, but  in  every  look  and  in  his  whole  countenance,  as  to  ap- 
pear an  enemy  to  the  most  honorable  orders  in  the  state,  hostile 
to  every  virtuous  man,  and  a  foe  to  his  country.  The  latter  con- 
sidered himself  so  bowed  down,  so  broken  down  by  that  mis- 
fortune, that  he  thought  that  none  of  his  former  dignity  was 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        121 

left  to  him,  except  what  he  could  retain  by  his  present  modera- 
tion. And  in  this  conspiracy,  what  union  was  ever  so  close 
as  that  between  Autronius  and  Catiline,  between  Autronius 
and  Lentulus  ?  What  combination  was  there  ever  between  any 
men  for  the  most  virtuous  purposes,  so  intimate  as  his  con- 
nection with  them  for  deeds  of  wickedness,  lust,  and  audacity  ? 
what  crime  is  there  which  Lentulus  did  not  plot  with  Autro- 
nius? what  atrocity  did  Catiline  ever  commit  without  his  as- 
sistance? while,  in  the  mean  time,  Sylla  not  only  abstained 
from  seeking  the  concealment  of  night  and  solitude  in  their 
company,  but  he  had  never  the  very  slightest  intercourse  with 
them,  either  in  conversation  or  in  casual  meetings.  The  Allo- 
broges,  those  who  gave  us  the  truest  information  on  the  most 
important  matters,  accused  Autronius,  and  so  did  the  letters 
of  many  men,  and  many  private  witnesses.  All  that  time  no 
one  ever  accused  Sylla;  no  one  ever  mentioned  his  name. 
Lastly,  after  Catiline  had  been  driven  out,  or  allowed  to  depart 
out  of  the  city,  Autronius  sent  his  arms,  trumpets,  bugles, 
scythes,1  standards,  legions.  He  who  was  left  in  the  city,  but 
expected  out  of  it,  though  checked  by  the  punishment  of  Len- 
tulus, gave  way  at  times  to  feelings  of  fear,  but  never  to  any 
right  feelings  or  good  sense.  Sylla,  on  the  other  hand,  was  so 
quiet,  that  all  that  time  he  was  at  Naples,  where  it  is  not  sup- 
posed that  there  were  any  men  who  were  implicated  in  or  sus- 
pected of  this  crime ;  and  the  place  itself  is  one  not  so  well  cal- 
culated to  excite  the  feelings  of  men  in  distress,  as  to  console 
them. 

On  account,  therefore,  of  this  great  dissimilarity  between  the 
men  and  the  cases,  I  also  behaved  in  a  different  manner  to  them 
both.  For  Autronius  came  to  me,  and  he  was  constantly  com- 
ing to  me,  with  many  tears,  as  a  suppliant,  to  beg  me  to  defend 
him,  and  he  used  to  remind  me  that  he  had  been  my  school- 
fellow in  my  childhood,  my  friend  in  my  youth,  and  my  col- 
league in  the  quaestorship.  He  used  to  enumerate  many  ser- 
vices which  I  had  done  him,  and  some  also  which  he  had  done 
me.  By  all  which  circumstances,  O  judges,  I  was  so  much 
swayed  and  influenced,  that  I  banished  from  my  recollection  all 
the  plots  which  he  had  laid  against  me  myself;  that  I  forgot 

1  Some   commentators   propose   fasces  instead  of  falces  here,  and  it  would  cer- 
tainly make  much  better  sense. 


122  CICERO 

that  Caius  Cornelius  had  been  lately  sent  by  him  for  the  pur- 
pose of  killing  me  in  my  own  house,  in  the  sight  of  my  wife 
and  children.  And  if  he  had  formed  these  designs  against  me 
alone,  such  is  my  softness  and  lenity  of  disposition,  that  I 
should  never  have  been  able  to  resist  his  tears  and  entreaties ; 
but  when  the  thoughts  of  my  country,  of  your  dangers,  of  this 
city,  of  all  those  shrines  and  temples  which  we  see  around  us, 
of  the  infant  children,  and  matrons,  and  virgins  of  the  city  oc- 
curred to  me,  and  when  those  hostile  and  fatal  torches  destined 
for  the  entire  conflagration  of  the  whole  city,  when  the  arms 
which  had  been  collected,  when  the  slaughter  and  blood  of  the 
citizens,  when  the  ashes  of  my  country  began  to  present  them- 
selves to  my  eyes,  and  to  excite  my  feelings  by  the  recollection, 
then  I  resisted  him,  then  I  resisted  not  only  that  enemy  of  his 
country,  that  parricide  himself,  but  I  withstood  also  his  rela- 
tions the  Marcelli,  father  and  son,  one  of  whom  was  regarded 
by  me  with  the  respect  due  to  a  parent,  and  the  other  with  the 
affection  which  one  feels  towards  a  son.  And  I  thought  that  I 
could  not,  without  being  guilty  of  the  very  greatest  wicked- 
ness, defend  in  their  companion  the  same  crimes  which  I  had 
chastised  in  the  case  of  others,  when  I  knew  him  to  be  guilty. 
And,  on  the  same  principle,  I  could  not  endure  to  see  Publius 
Sylla  coming  to  me  as  a  suppliant,  or  these  same  Marcelli  in 
tears  at  his  danger ;  nor  could  I  resist  the  entreaties  of  Marcus 
Messala,  whom  you  see  in  court,  a  most  intimate  friend  of  my 
own.  For,  neither  was  his  cause  disagreeable  to  my  natural 
disposition,  nor  had  the  man  or  the  facts  anything  in  them  at 
variance  with  my  feelings  of  clemency.  His  name  had  never 
been  mentioned,  there  was  no  trace  whatever  of  him  in  the  con- 
spiracy ;  no  information  had  touched  him,  no  suspicion  had 
been  breathed  of  him.  I  undertook  his  cause,  O  Torquatus ;  I 
undertook  it,  and  I  did  so  willingly,  in  order  that,  while  good 
men  had  always,  as  I  hope,  thought  me  virtuous  and  firm,  not 
even  bad  men  might  be  able  to  call  me  cruel. 

This  Torquatus  then,  O  judges,  says  that  he  cannot  endure 
my  kingly  power.  What  is  the  meaning  of  my  kingly  power, 
O  Torquatus  ?  I  suppose  you  mean  the  power  I  exerted  in  my 
consulship;  in  which  I  did  not  command  at  all,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  I  obeyed  the  conscript  fathers,  and  all  good  men.  In 
my  discharge  of  that  office,  O  judges,  kingly  power  was  not 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        123 

established  by  me,  but  put  down.  Will  you  say  that  then,  when 
I  had  such  absolute  power  and  authority  over  all  the  military 
and  civil  affairs  of  the  State,  I  was  not  a  king,  but  that  now, 
when  I  am  only  a  private  individual,  I  have  the  power  of  a 
king?  Under  what  title?  "Why,  because,"  says  he,  "those 
against  whom  you  gave  evidence  were  convicted,  and  the  man 
whom  you  defend  hopes  that  he  shall  be  acquitted."  Here  I 
make  you  this  reply,  as  to  what  concerns  my  evidence:  that 
if  I  gave  false  evidence,  you  also  gave  evidence  against  the 
same  man ;  if  my  testimony  was  true,  then  I  say,  that  persuad- 
ing the  judges  to  believe  a  true  statement,  which  one  has  made 
on  oath,  is  a  very  different  thing  from  being  a  king.  And  of 
the  hopes  of  my  client,  I  only  say,  that  Publius  Sylla  does  not 
expect  from  me  any  exertion  of  my  influence  or  interest,  or, 
in  short,  anything  except  to  defend  him  with  good  faith.  "  But 
unless  you,"  says  he,  "  had  undertaken  his  cause,  he  could 
never  have  resisted  me,  but  would  have  fled  without  saying  a 
word  in  his  defence."  Even  if  I  were  to  grant  to  you  that  Quin- 
tus  Hortensius,  being  a  man  of  such  wisdom  as  he  is,  and  that 
all  these  men  of  high  character,  rely  not  on  their  own  judgment, 
but  on  mine ;  if  I  were  to  grant  to  you,  what  no  one  can  be- 
lieve, that  these  men  would  not  have  countenanced  Publius  Sylla 
if  I  had  not  done  so  too ;  still,  which  is  the  king,  he  whom  men, 
though  perfectly  innocent,  cannot  resist,  or  he  who  does  not 
abandon  men  in  misfortune?  But  here  too,  though  you  had 
not  the  least  occasion  for  it,  you  took  a  fancy  to  be  witty,  when 
you  called  me  Tarquin,  and  Numa,  and  the  third  foreign  king 
of  Rome.  I  won't  say  any  more  about  the  word  king;  but  I 
should  like  to  know  why  you  called  me  a  foreigner.  For,  if 
I  am  such,  then  it  is  not  so  marvellous  that  I  should  be  a  king 
— because,  as  you  say  yourself,  foreigners  have  before  now  been 
kings  at  Rome — as  that  a  foreigner  should  be  a  consul  at  Rome. 
"  This  is  what  I  mean,"  says  he,  "  that  you  come  from  a 
municipal  town."  I  confess  that  I  do,  and  I  add,  that  I  come 
from  that  municipal  town  from  which  salvation  to  this  city 
and  empire  has  more  than  once  proceeded.  But  I  should  like 
exceedingly  to  know  from  you,  how  it  is  that  those  men  who 
come  from  the  municipal  towns  appear  to  you  to  be  foreign- 
ers. For  no  one  ever  made  that  objection  to  that  great  man, 
Marcus  Cato  the  elder,  though  he  had  many  enemies,  or  to 


124  CICERO 

Titus  Coruncanius,  or  to  Marcus  Curius,  or  even  to  that  great 
hero  of  our  own  times,  Caius  Marius,  though  many  men  envied 
him.  In  truth,  I  am  exceedingly  delighted  that  I  am  a  man  of 
such  a  charcater  that,  when  you  were  anxious  to  find  fault  with 
me,  you  could  still  find  nothing  to  reproach  me  with  which 
did  not  apply  also  to  the  greater  part  of  the  citizens. 

But  still,  on  account  of  your  great  friendship  and  intimacy, 
I  think  it  well  to  remind  ygu  of  this  more  than  once — all  men 
cannot  be  patricians.  If  you  would  know  the  truth,  they  do 
not  all  even  wish  to  be  so ;  nor  do  those  of  your  own  age  think 
that  you  ought  on  that  account  to  have  precedence  over  them. 
And  if  we  seem  to  you  to  be  foreigners,  we  whose  name  and 
honors  have  now  become  familiar  topics  of  conversation  and 
panegyric  throughout  the  city  and  among  all  men,  how  greatly 
must  those  competitors  of  yours  seem  to  be  foreigners,  who 
now,  having  been  picked  out  of  all  Italy,  are  contending  with 
you  for  honor  and  for  every  dignity !  And  yet  take  care  that 
you  do  not  call  one  of  these  a  foreigner,  lest  you  should  be  over- 
whelmed by  the  votes  of  the  foreigners.  For  if  they  once  bring 
their  activity  and  perseverance  into  action,  believe  me  they 
will  shake  those  arrogant  expressions  out  of  you,  and  they  will 
frequently  wake  you  from  sleep,  and  will  not  endure  to  be  sur- 
passed by  you  in  honors,  unless  they  are  also  excelled  by  you 
in  virtue.  And  if,  O  judges,  it  is  fit  for  me  and  you  to  be  con- 
sidered foreigners  by  the  rest  of  the  patricians,  still  nothing 
ought  to  be  said  about  this  blot  by  Torquatus.  For  he  himself 
is,  on  his  mother's  side,  a  citizen  of  a  municipal  town ;  a  man 
of  a  most  honorable  and  noble  family,  but  still  he  comes  from 
Asculum.  Either  let  him,  then,  show  that  the  Picentians  alone 
are  not  foreigners,  or  else  let  him  congratulate  himself  that  I 
do  not  put  my  family  before  his.  So  do  not  for  the  future  call 
me  a  foreigner,  lest  you  meet  with  a  sterner  refutation;  and 
do  not  call  me  a  king,  lest  you  be  laughed  at.  Unless,  indeed,  it 
appears  to  be  the  conduct  of  a  king  to  live  in  such  a  manner 
as  not  to  be  slave  not  only  to  any  man,  but  not  even  to  any 
passion;  to  despise  all  capricious  desires;  to  covet  neither  gold 
nor  silver,  nor  anything  else ;  to  form  one's  opinions  in  the 
Senate  with  freedom  ;  to  consider  the  real  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple, rather  than  their  inclinations ;  to  yield  to  no  one,  to  oppose 
many  men.  If  you  think  that  this  is  the  conduct  of  a  king,  then 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        125 

I  confess  that  I  am  a  king.  If  my  power,  if  my  sway,  if,  lastly, 
any  arrogant  or  haughty  expression  of  mine  moves  your  indig- 
nation, then  you  should  rather  allege  that,  than  stoop  to  raise 
odium  against  me  by  a  name,  and  to  employ  mere  abuse  and 
insult. 

If,  after  having  done  so  many  services  to  the  republic,  I 
were  to  ask  for  myself  no  other  reward  from  the  Senate  and 
people  of  Rome  beyond  honorable  ease,  who  is  there  who  would 
not  grant  it  to  me?  If  I  were  to  ask,  that  they  would  keep  all 
honors,  and  commands,  and  provinces,  and  triumphs,  and  all 
the  other  insignia  of  eminent  renown  to  themselves,  and  that 
they  would  allow  me  to  enjoy  the  sight  of  the  city  which  I  had 
saved,  and  a  tranquil  and  quiet  mind?  What,  however,  if  I 
do  not  ask  this  ?  what,  if  my  former  industry,  my  anxiety,  my 
assistance,  my  labor,  my  vigilance  is  still  at  the  service  of  my 
friends,  and  ready  at  the  call  of  everyone?  If  my  friends 
never  seek  in  vain  for  my  zeal  on  their  behalf  in  the  forum, 
nor  the  republic  in  the  senate-house;  if  neither  the  holiday 
earned  by  my  previous  achievements,  nor  the  excuse  which 
my  past  honors  or  my  present  age  might  supply  me  with,  is 
employed  to  save  me  from  trouble;  if  my  good-will,  my  in- 
dustry, my  house,  my  attention,  and  my  ears  are  always  open 
to  all  men ;  if  I  have  not  even  any  time  left  to  recollect  and 
think  over  those  things  which  I  have  done  for  the  safety  of  the 
whole  body  of  citizens ;  shall  this  still  be  called  kingly  power, 
when  no  one  can  possibly  be  found  who  would  act  as  my  sub- 
stitute in  it?  All  suspicion  of  aiming  at  kingly  power  is  very 
far  removed  from  me.  If  you  ask  who  they  are  who  have 
endeavored  to  assume  kingly  power  in  Rome,  without  unfold- 
ing the  records  of  the  public  annals,  you  may  find  them  amon£ 
the  images  in  your  own  house.  I  suppose  it  is  my  achievements 
which  have  unduly  elated  me,  and  have  inspired  me  with  I 
know  not  how  much  pride.  Concerning  which  deeds  of  mine, 
illustrious  and  immortal  as  they  are,  O  judges,  I  can  say  thus 
much — that  I,  who  have  saved  this  city,  and  the  lives  of  all 
the  citizens,  from  the  most  extreme  dangers,  shall  have  gained 
quite  reward  enough,  if  no  danger  arises  to  myself  out  of  the 
great  service  which  I  have  done  to  all  men. 

In  truth,  I  recollect  in  what  state  it  is  that  I  have  done  such 
great  exploits,  and  in  what  city  I  am  living.  The  forum  is 


126  CICERO 

full  of  those  men  whom  I,  O  judges,  have  taken  off  from  your 
necks,  but  have  not  removed  from  my  own.  Unless  you  think 
that  they  were  only  a  few  men,  who  were  able  to  attempt  or 
to  hope  that  they  might  be  able  to  destroy  so  vast  an  empire. 
I  was  able  to  take  away  their  fire-brands,  to  wrest  their  torches 
from  their  hands,  as  I  did ;  but  their  wicked  and  impious  incli- 
nations I  could  neither  cure  nor  eradicate.  Therefore  I  am 
not  ignorant  in  what  danger  I  am  living  among  such  a  multi- 
tude of  wicked  men,  since  I  see  that  I  have  undertaken  single- 
handed  an  eternal  war  against  all  wicked  men. 

But  if,  perchance,  you  envy  that  means  of  protection  which 
I  have,  and  if  it  seems  to  you  to  be  of  a  kingly  sort — namely, 
the  fact  that  all  good  men  of  all  ranks  and  classes  consider  their 
safety  as  bound  up  with  mine — comfort  yourself  with  the  reflec- 
tion that  the  dispositions  of  all  wicked  men  are  especially  hostile 
to  and  furious  against  me  alone;  and  they  hate  me,  not  only 
because  I  repressed  their  profligate  attempts  and  impious  mad- 
ness, but  still  more  because  they  think  that,  as  long  as  I  am 
alive,  they  can  attempt  nothing  more  of  the  same  sort.  But 
why  do  I  wonder  if  any  wicked  thing  is  said  of  me  by  wicked 
men,  where  Lucius  Torquatus  himself,  after  having  in  the  first 
place  laid  such  a  foundation  of  virtue  as  he  did  in  his  youth, 
after  having  proposed  to  himself  the  hope  of  the  most  honorable 
dignity  in  the  state,  and,  in  the  second  place,  being  the  son  of 
Lucius  Torquatus,  a  most  intrepid  consul,  a  most  virtuous 
senator,  and  at  all  times  a  most  admirable  citizen,  is  sometimes 
run  away  with  by  impetuosity  of  language  ?  For  when  he  had 
spoken  in  a  low  voice  of  the  wickedness  of  Publius  Lentulus, 
and  of  the  audacity  of  all  the  conspirators,  so  that  only  you, 
who  approve  of  those  things,  could  hear  what  he  said,  he  spoke 
with  a  loud  querulous  voice  of  the  execution  of  Publius  Len- 
tulus and  of  the  prison ;  in  which  there  was,  first  of  all,  this 
absurdity,  that  when  he  wished  to  gain  your  approval  of  the 
inconsiderate  things  which  he  had  said,  but  did  not  wish  those 
men,  who  were  standing  around  the  tribunal,  to  hear  them,  he 
did  not  perceive  that,  while  he  was  speaking  so  loudly,  those 
men  whose  favor  he  was  seeking  to  gain  could  not  hear  him, 
without  your  hearing  him  too,  who  did  not  approve  of  what 
he  was  saying;  and,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  a  great  defect 
in  an  orator  not  to  see  what  each  cause  requires.  For  nothing 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        127 

is  so  inconsistent  as  for  a  man  who  is  accusing  another  of  con- 
spiracy, to  appear  to  lament  the  punishment  and  death  of  con- 
spirators ;  which  is  not,  indeed,  strange  to  anyone,  when  it  is 
done  by  that  tribune  of  the  people  who  appears  to  be  the  only 
man  left  to  bewail  those  conspirators ;  for  it  is  difficult  to  be 
silent  when  you  are  really  grieved.  But,  if  you  do  anything 
of  that  sort,  I  do  greatly  marvel  at  you,  not  only  because  you 
are  such  a  young  man  as  you  are,  but  because  you  do  it  in  the 
very  cause  in  which  you  wish  to  appear  as  a  punisher  of  con- 
spiracy. However,  what  I  find  fault  with  most  of  all,  is  this : 
that  you,  with  your  abilities  and  your  prudence,  do  not  main- 
tain the  true  interest  of  the  republic,  but  believe,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  those  actions  are  not  approved  of  by  the  Roman 
people,  which,  when  I  was  consul,  were  done  by  all  virtuous 
men,  for  the  preservation  of  the  common  safety  of  all. 

Do  you  believe  that  any  one  of  those  men  who  are  here  pres- 
ent, into  whose  favor  you  were  seeking  to  insinuate  yourself 
against  their  will,  was  either  so  wicked  as  to  wish  all  these 
things  to  be  destroyed,  or  so  miserable  as  to  wish  to  perish  him- 
self, and  to  have  nothing  which  he  wished  to  preserve?  Is 
there  anyone  who  blames  the  most  illustrious  man  of  your  fam- 
ily and  name,  who  deprived  his  own  son  2  of  life  in  order  to 
strengthen  his  power  over  the  rest  of  his  army;  and  do  you 
blame  the  republic  for  destroying  domestic  enemies  in  order 
to  avoid  being  herself  destroyed  by  them?  Take  notice  then, 
O  Torquatus,  to  what  extent  I  shirk  the  avowal  of  the  actions 
of  my  consulship.  I  speak,  and  I  always  will  speak,  with  my 
loudest  voice,  in  order  that  all  men  may  be  able  to  hear  me: 
be  present  all  of  you  with  your  minds,  ye  who  are  present  with 
your  bodies,  ye  in  whose  numerous  attendance  I  take  great 
pleasure ;  give  me  your  attention  and  all  your  ears,  and  listen 
to  me  while  I  speak  of  what  he  believes  to  be  unpopular  topics. 
I,  as  consul,  when  an  army  of  abandoned  citizens,  got  together 
by  clandestine  wickedness,  had  prepared  a  most  cruel  and  mis- 
erable destruction  for  my  country;  when  Catiline  had  been 
appointed  to  manage  the  fall  and  ruin  of  the  republic  in  the 
camp,  and  when  Lentulus  was  the  leader  among  those  very 

8  This  refers  to  the  story  of  Titus  Man-  of  a  general  order  issued  by  his  father 

lius  Torquatus,  who,   in  the  Latin  War  the  consul)    to   fight   Geminius   Metius, 

(A.U.C.  415),  put  his  own  son  to  death  whom   he   slew.     The   story   is   told   by 

for   leaving   his   ranks    (in   forgetfulness  Livy,  lib.  iii.  c.  7. 


i28  CICERO 

temples  and  houses  around  us;  I,  I  say,  by  my  labors,  at  the 
risk  of  my  own  life,  by  my  prudence,  without  any  tumult, 
without  making  any  extraordinary  levies,  without  arms,  with- 
out an  army,  having  arrested  and  executed  five  men,  delivered 
the  city  from  conflagration,  the  citizens  from  massacre,  Italy 
from  devastation,  the  republic  from  destruction.  I,  at  the  price 
of  the  punishment  of  five  frantic  and  ruined  men,  ransomed  the 
lives  of  all  the  citizens,  the  constitution  of  the  whole  world, 
this  city,  the  home  of  all  of  us,  the  citadel  of  foreign  kings 
and  foreign  nations,  the  light  of  all  people,  the  abode  of  empire. 
Did  you  think  that  I  would  not  say  this  in  a  court  of  justice 
when  I  was  not  on  my  oath,  which  I  had  said  before  now  in 
a  most  numerous  assembly  when  speaking  3  on  oath  ? 

And  I  will  say  this  further,  O  Torquatus,  to  prevent  any 
wicked  man  from  conceiving  any  sudden  attachment  to,  or 
any  sudden  hopes  of  you;  and,  in  order  that  everyone  may 
hear  it,  I  will  say  it  as  loudly  as  I  can:  Of  all  those  things 
which  I  undertook  and  did  during  my  consulship  in  defence 
of  the  common  safety,  that  Lucius  Torquatus,  being  my  con- 
stant comrade  in  my  consulship,  and  having  been  so  also  in  my 
praetorship,  was  my  defender,  and  assistant,  and  partner  in 
my  actions;  being  also  the  chief,  and  the  leader,  and  the 
standard-bearer  of  the  Roman  youth;  and  his  father,  a  man 
most  devoted  to  his  country,  a  man  of  the  greatest  courage, 
of  the  most  consummate  political  wisdom,  and  of  singular  firm- 
ness, though  he  was  sick,  still  was  constantly  present  at  all  my 
actions;  he  never  left  my  side:  he,  by  his  zeal  and  wisdom 
and  authority  was  of  the  very  greatest  assistance  to  me,  over- 
coming the  infirmity  of  his  body  by  the  vigor  of  his  mind.  Do 
you  not  see  now,  how  I  deliver  you  from  the  danger  of  any 
sudden  popularity  among  the  wicked,  and  reconcile  you  to  all 
good  men?  who  love  you,  and  cherish  you,  and  who  always 
will  cherish  you;  nor,  if  perchance  you  for  a  while  abandon 
me,  will  they  on  that  account  allow  you  to  abandon  them  and 
the  republic  and  your  own  dignity. 

•This  refers  to  Cicero's  conduct  when  charged   his    duty   with    fidelity,    swore 

resigning   his   consulship.     Metellus,   as  with    a   loud   voice   "  that   the   republic 

has  been   said   before,   refused   to   allow  and  the  city  had  been  saved  by  his  un- 

him   to   make   a   speech   to   the   people,  assisted    labor";     and    all    the    Roman 

because,  as  he  said,  he  had  put  Roman  people    cried    out    with    one    voice    that 

citizens    to    death    without    a    trial;    on  that    statement   was    true    to    its    fullest 

which    Cicero,   instead   of   making   oath  extent, 
in  the  ordinary  formula,  that  he  had  dis- 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA  „     129 

But  now  I  return  to  the  cause ;  and  I  call  you,  O  judges,  to 
bear  witness  to  this — that  this  necessity  of  speaking  of  myself 
was  imposed  on  me  by  him.  For  if  Torquatus  had  been  con- 
tent with  accusing  Sylla,  I  too  at  the  present  time  should  have 
done  nothing  beyond  defending  him  who  had  been  accused; 
but  when  he,  in  his  whole  speech,  inveighed  against  me,  and 
when,  in  the  very  beginning,  as  I  said,  he  sought  to  deprive 
my  defence  of  all  authority,  even  if  my  indignation  had  not 
compelled  me  to  speak,  still  the  necessity  of  doing  justice  to 
my  cause  would  have  demanded  this  speech  from  me. 

You  say  that  Sylla  was  named  by  the  Allobroges.  Who 
denies  it  ?  but  read  the  information,  and  see  how  he  was  named. 
They  said  that  Lucius  Cassius  had  said  that,  among  other  men, 
Autronius  was  favorable  to  their  designs.  I  ask,  did  Cassius 
say  that  Sylla  was?  Never.  They  say  that  they  themselves 
inquired  of  Cassius  what  Sylla's  opinions  were.  Observe  the 
diligence  of  the  Gauls.  They,  knowing  nothing  of  the  life  or 
character  of  the  man,  but  only  having  heard  that  he  and  Au- 
tronius had  met  with  one  common  disaster,  asked  whether  his 
inclinations  were  the  same?  What  then?  Even  if  Cassius 
had  made  answer  that  Sylla  was  of  the  same  opinion,  and  was 
favorable  to  their  views,  still  it  would  not  seem  to  me  that  that 
reply  ought  to  be  made  matter  of  accusation  against  him.  How 
so?  Because,  as  it  was  his  object  to  instigate  the  barbarians 
to  war,  it  was  no  business  of  his  to  weaken  their  expectations, 
or  to  acquit  those  men  of  whom  they  did  entertain  some  sus- 
picions. But  yet  he  did  not  reply  that  Sylla  was  favorable 
to  their  designs.  And,  in  truth,  it  would  have  been  an  absurd- 
ity, after  he  had  named  everyone  else  of  his  own  accord,  to 
make  no  mention  of  Sylla  till  he  was  reminded  of  him  and 
asked  about  him.  Unless  you  think  this  probable,  that  Lucius 
Cassius  had  quite  forgotten  the  name  of  Publius  Sylla.  Even 
if  the  high  rank  of  the  man,  and  his  unfortunate  condition, 
and  the  relics  of  his  ancient  dignity,  had  not  made  him  notori- 
ous, still  the  mention  of  Autronius  must  have  recalled  Sylla  to 
his  recollection.  In  truth,  it  is  my  opinion,  that,  when  Cassius 
was  enumerating  the  authority  of  the  chief  men  of  the  con- 
spiracy, for  the  purpose  of  exciting  the  minds  of  the  Allo- 
broges, as  he  knew  that  the  foreign  nations  are  especially 
moved  by  an  illustrious  name,  he  would  not  have  named  Au- 
9 


1 3o 


CICERO 


tronius  before  Sylla,  if  he  had  been  able  to  name  Sylla  at  all. 
But  no  one  can  be  induced  to  believe  this — that  the  Gauls, 
the  moment  that  Autronius  was  named,  should  have  thought, 
on  account  of  the  similarity  of  their  misfortunes,  that  it  was 
worth  their  while  to  make  inquiries  about  Sylla,  but  that  Cas- 
sius,  if  he  really  was  implicated  in  this  wickedness,  should 
never  have  once  recollected  Sylla,  even  after  he  had  named  Au- 
tronius. However,  what  was  the  reply  which  Cassius  made 
about  Sylla  ?  He  said  that  he  was  not  sure.  "  He  does  not 
acquit  him,"  says  Torquatus.  I  have  said  before,  that  even  if 
he  had  accused  him,  when  he  was  interrogated  in  this  manner, 
his  reply  ought  not  to  have  been  made  matter  of  accusation 
against  Sylla.  But  I  think  that,  in  judicial  proceedings  and 
examinations,  the  thing  to  be  inquired  is,  not  whether  anyone 
is  exculpated,  but  whether  anyone  is  inculpated.  And  in  truth, 
when  Cassius  says  that  he  does  not  know,  is  he  seeking  to  ex- 
culpate Sylla,  or  proving  clearly  enough  that  he  really  does 
not  know  ?  He  is  unwilling  to  compromise  him  with  the  Gauls. 
Why  so  ?  That  they  may  not  mention  him  in  their  information  ? 
What  ?  If  he  had  supposed  that  there  was  any  danger  of  their 
ever  giving  any  information  at  all,  would  he  have  made  that 
confession  respecting  himself?  He  did  not  know  it.  I  sup- 
pose, O  judges,  Sylla  was  the  only  person  about  whom  Cassius 
was  kept  in  the  dark.  For  he  certainly  was  well  informed 
about  everyone  else ;  and  it  was  thoroughly  proved  that  a  great 
deal  of  the  conspiracy  was  hatched  at  his  house.  As  he 
did  not  like  to  deny  that  Sylla  made  one  of  the  conspirators, 
his  object  being  to  give  the  Gauls  as  much  hope  as  possible, 
and  as  he  did  not  venture  to  assert  what  was  absolutely  false, 
he  said  that  he  did  not  know.  But  this  is  quite  evident,  that 
as  he,  who  knew  the  truth  about  everyone,  said  that  he  did  not 
know  about  Sylla,  the  same  weight  is  due  to  this  denial  of  his 
as  if  he  had  said  that  he  did  know  that  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  conspiracy.  For  when  it  is  perfectly  certain  that  a 
man  is  acquainted  with  all  the  conspirators,  his  ignorance  of 
anyone  ought  to  be  considered  an  acquittal  of  him.  But  I  am 
not  asking  now  whether  Cassius  acquits  Sylla;  this  is  quite 
sufficient  for  me,  that  there  is  not  one  word  to  implicate  Sylla 
in  the  whole  information  of  the  Allobroges. 

Torquatus  being  cut  off  from  this  article  of  his  accusation, 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE   OF   PUBLIUS   SYLLA        131 

again  turns  against  me,  and  accuses  me.  He  says  that  I  have 
made  an  entry  in  the  public  registers  of  a  different  statement 
from  that  which  was  really  made.  O  ye  immortal  gods  (for  I 
will  give  you  what  belongs  to  you ;  nor  can  I  attribute  so  much 
to  my  own  ability,  as  to  think  that  I  was  able,  in  that  most 
turbulent  tempest  which  was  afflicting  the  republic,  to  manage, 
of  my  own  power,  so  many  and  such  important  affairs — affairs 
arising  so  unexpectedly,  and  of  such  various  characters)  !  it 
was  you,  in  truth,  who  then  inflamed  my  mind  with  the  desire 
of  saving  my  country;  it  was  you  who  turned  me  from  all 
other  thoughts  to  the  one  idea  of  preserving  the  republic;  it 
was  you  who,  amid  all  that  darkness  of  error  and  ignorance, 
held  a  bright  light  before  my  mind !  I  saw  this,  O  judges,  that 
unless,  while  the  recollection  of  the  Senate  on  the  subject  was 
still  fresh,  I  bore  evidence  to  the  authority  and  to  the  par- 
ticulars of  this  information  by  public  records,  hereafter  some- 
one, not  Torquatus,  nor  anyone  like  Torquatus  (for  in  that 
indeed  I  have  been  much  deceived),  but  someone  who  had  lost 
his  patrimony,  some  enemy  of  tranquillity,  some  foe  to  all 
good  men,  would  say  that  the  information  given  had  been 
different ;  in  order  the  more  easily,  when  some  gale  of  odium 
had  been  stirred  up  against  all  virtuous  men,  to  be  able,  amid 
the  misfortunes  of  the  republic,  to  discover  some  harbor  for  his 
own  broken  vessel.  Therefore,  having  introduced  the  informers 
into  the  Senate,  I  appointed  senators  to  take  down  every  state- 
ment made  by  the  informers,  every  question  that  was  asked, 
and  every  answer  that  was  given.  And  what  men  they  were ! 
Not  only  men  of  the  greatest  virtue  and  good  faith,  of  which 
sort  of  men  there  are  plenty  in  the  Senate,  but  men,  also,  who 
I  knew  from  their  memory,  from  their  knowledge,  from  their 
habit  and  rapidity  of  writing,  could  most  easily  follow  every- 
thing that  was  said.  I  selected  Caius  Cosconius,  who  was 
praetor  at  the  time;  Marcus  Messala,  who  was  at  the  time 
standing  for  the  praetorship;  Publius  Nigidius,  and  Appius 
Claudius.  I  believe  that  there  is  no  one  who  thinks  that  these 
men  were  deficient  either  in  the  good  faith  or  in  the  ability  re- 
quisite to  enable  them  to  give  an  accurate  report. 

What  followed?  What  did  I  do  next?  As  I  knew  that 
the  information  was  by  these  means  entered  among  the  public 
documents,  but  yet  that  those  records  would  be  kept  in  the 


132 


CICERO 


custody  of  private  individuals,  according  to  the  customs  of 
our  ancestors,  I  did  not  conceal  it;  I  did  not  keep  it  at  my 
own  house ;  but  I  caused  it  at  once  to  be  copied  out  by  several 
clerks,  and  to  be  distributed  everywhere  and  published  and 
made  known  to  the  Roman  people.  I  distributed  it  all  over 
Italy,  I  sent  copies  of  it  into  every  province;  I  wish  no  one 
to  be  ignorant  of  that  information,  by  means  of  which  safety 
was  procured  for  all.  And  I  took  this  precaution,  though  at 
so  disturbed  a  time,  and  when  all  opportunities  of  acting  were 
so  sudden  and  so  brief,  at  the  suggestion  of  some  divine  provi- 
dence, as  I  said  before,  and  not  of  my  own  accord,  or  of  my 
own  wisdom;  taking  care,  in  the  first  instance,  that  no  one 
should  be  able  to  recollect  of  the  danger  to  the  republic,  or  to 
any  individual,  only  as  much  as  he  pleased ;  and  in  the  second 
place,  that  no  one  should  be  able  at  any  time  to  find  fault  with 
that  information,  or  to  accuse  us  of  having  given  credit  to  it 
rashly;  and  lastly,  that  no  one  should  ever  put  any  questions 
to  me,  or  seek  to  learn  anything  from  my  private  journals,  lest 
I  might  be  accused  of  either  forgetting  or  remembering  too 
much,  and  lest  any  negligence  of  mine  should  be  thought  dis- 
creditable, or  lest  any  eagerness  on  my  part  might  seem  cruel. 
But  still,  O  Torquatus,  I  ask  you,  as  your  enemy  was  men- 
tioned in  the  information,  and  as  a  full  Senate  and  the  mem- 
ory of  all  men  as  to  so  recent  an  affair  were  witnesses  of  that 
fact;  as  my  clerks  would  have  communicated  the  informa- 
tion to  you,  my  intimate  friend  and  companion,  if  you  had 
wished  for  it,  even  before  they  had  taken  a  copy  of  it;  when 
you  saw  that  there  were  any  incorrectnesses  in  it,  why  were 
you  silent,  why  did  you  permit  them?  Why  did  you  not 
make  a  complaint  to  me  or  to  some  friend  of  mine?  or  why 
did  you  not  at  least,  since  you  are  so  well  inclined  to  inveigh 
against  your  friends,  expostulate  passionately  and  earnestly 
with  me?  Do  you,  when  your  voice  was  never  once  heard 
at  the  time,  when,  though  the  information  was  read,  and 
copied  out,  and  published,  you  kept  silence  then — do  you,  I 
say,  now  on  a  sudden  dare  to  bring  forward  a  statement  of 
such  importance?  and  to  place  yourself  in  such  a  position 
that,  before  you  can  convict  me  of  having  tampered  with  the 
information,  you  must  confess  that  you  are  convicted  yourself 
of  the  grossest  negligence,  on  your  own  information  laid  against 
yourself  ? 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA 


133 


Was  the  safety  of  anyone  of  such  consequence  to  me  as 
to  induce  me  to  forget  my  own?  or  to  make  me  contaminate 
the  truth,  which  I  had  laid  open,  by  any  lie?  Or  do  you  sup- 
pose that  I  would  assist  anyone  by  whom  I  thought  that  a 
cruel  plot  had  been  laid  against  the  republic,  and  most  espe- 
cially against  -me  the  consul  ?  But  if  I  had  been  forgetful  of 
my  own  severity  and  of  my  own  virtue,  was  I  so  mad,  as,  when 
letters  are  things  which  have  been  devised  for  the  sake  of 
posterity,  in  order  to  be  a  protection  against  forgetfulness,  to 
think  that  the  fresh  recollection  of  the  whole  Senate  could  be 
beaten  down  by  my  journal  ?  I  have  been  bearing  with  you, 

0  Torquatus,  for  a  long  time.    I  have  been  bearing  with  you ; 
and  sometimes  I,  of  my  own  accord,  call  back  and  check  my 
inclination,  when  it  has  been  provoked  to  chastise  your  speech. 

1  make  some  allowance  for  your  violent  temper,  I  have  some 
indulgence  for  your  youth,  I  yield  somewhat  to  our  own  friend- 
ship, I  have  some  regard  to  your  father.    But  unless  you  put 
some  restraint  upon  yourself,  you  will  compel  me  to  forget  our 
friendship,  in  order  to  pay  due  regard  to  my  own  dignity.    No 
one  ever  attempted  to  attach  the  slightest  suspicion  to  me,  that 
I  did  not  defeat  him;   but  I  wish  you  to  believe  me  in  this; 
those  whom  I  think  that  I  can  defeat  most  easily,  are  not 
those  whom  I  take  the  greatest  pleasure  in  answering.     Do 
you,  since  you  are  not  at  all  ignorant  of  my  ordinary  way  of 
speaking,  forbear  to  abuse  my  lenity.     Do  not  think  that  the 
stings   of  my  eloquence  are  taken   away,   because   they   are 
sheathed.    Do  not  think  that  that  power  has  been  entirely  lost, 
because  I  show  some  consideration  for,  and  indulgence  toward 
you.     In  the  first  place,  the  excuses  which  I  make  to  myself 
for  your  injurious  conduct,  your  violent  temper,  your  age,  and 
our  friendship,  have  much  weight  with  me;   and,  in  the  next 
place,  I  do  not-  yet  consider  you  a  person  of  sufficient  power  to 
make  it  worth  my  while  to  contend  and  argue  with  you.    But 
if  you  were  more  capable  through  age  and  experience,  I  should 
pursue  the  conduct  which  is  habitual  to  me  when  I  have  been 
provoked ;  at  present  I  will  deal  with  you  in  such  a  way  that  I 
shall  seem  to  have  received  an  injury  rather  than  to  have  re- 
quited one. 

Nor,  indeed,  can  I  make  out  why  you  are  angry  with  me. 
If  it  is  because  I  am  defending  a  man  whom  you  are  accusing, 


I34  CICERO 

why  should  not  I  also  be  angry  with  you,  for  accusing  a  man 
whom  I  am  defending?  "  I,"  say  you,  "  am  accusing  my  ene- 
my." And  I  am  defending  my  friend.  "  But  you  ought  not 
to  defend  anyone  who  is  being  tried  for  conspiracy."  On  the 
contrary,  no  one  ought  to  be  more  prompt  to  defend  a  man 
of  whom  he  has  never  suspected  any  ill,  than  he  who  has  had 
many  reasons  for  forming  opinions  about  other  men.  "  Why 
did  you  give  evidence  against  others  ?  "  Because  I  was  com- 
pelled. "  Why  were  they  convicted  ?  "  Because  my  evidence 
was  believed.  "  It  is  behaving  like  a  king  to  speak  against 
whomsoever  you  please,  and  to  defend  whomsoever  you  please." 
Say,  rather,  that  it  is  slavery  not  to  be  able  to  speak  against 
anyone  you  choose,  and  to  defend  anyone  you  choose.  And 
if  you  begin  to  consider  whether  it  was  more  necessary  for  me 
to  do  this,  or  for  you  to  do  that,  you  will  perceive  that  you 
could  with  more  credit  fix  a  limit  to  your  enmities  than  I  could 
to  my  humanity. 

But  when  the  greatest  honors  of  your  family  were  at  stake, 
that  is  to  say,  the  consulship  of  your  father,  that  wise  man 
your  father  was  not  angry  with  his  most  intimate  friends  for 
defending  and  praising  Sylla.  He  was  aware  that  this  was  a 
principle  handed  down  to  us  from  our  ancestors,  that  we  were 
not  to  be  hindered  by  our  friendship  for  anyone,  from  ward- 
ing off  dangers  from  others.  And  yet  that  contest  was  far 
from  resembling  this  trial.  Then,  if  Publius  Sylla  could  be 
put  down,  the  consulship  would  be  procured  for  your  father, 
as  it  was  procured ;  it  was  a  contest  of  honor ;  you  were  cry- 
ing out,  that  you  were  seeking  to  recover  what  had  been  taken 
from  you,  in  order  that,  having  been  defeated  in  the  Campus 
Martius,  you  might  succeed  in  the  forum.  Then,  those  who 
were  contending  against  you  for  Sylla's  safety,  your  greatest 
friends,  with  whom  you  were  not  angry  on  that  account, 
deprived  you  of  the  consulship,  resisted  your  acquisition  of 
honor;  and  yet  they  did  so  without  any  rupture  of  your  mu- 
tual friendship,  without  violating  any  duty,  according  to  an- 
cient precedent  and  the  established  principles  of  every  good 
man. 

But  now  what  promotion  of  yours  am  I  opposing?  or  what 
dignity  of  yours  am  I  throwing  obstacles  in  the  way  of?  What 
is  there  which  you  can  at  present  seek  from  this  proceeding? 


ORATION   IN   DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        135 

Honor  has  been  conferred  on  your  father;  the  insignia  of  honor 
have  descended  to  you.  You,  adorned  with  his  spoils,  come  to 
tear  the  body  of  him  whom  you  have  slain;  I  am  defending  and 
protecting  him  who  is  lying  prostrate  and  stripped  of  his  arms. 
And  on  this  you  find  fault  with  me,  and  are  angry  because  I  de- 
fend him.  But  I  not  only  am  not  angry  with  you,  but  I  do  not 
even  find  fault  with  your  proceeding.  For  I  imagine  that  you 
have  laid  down  a  rule  for  yourself  as  to  what  you  thought  that 
you  ought  to  do,  and  that  you  have  appointed  a  very  capable 
judge  of  your  duty.  "  Oh,  but  the  son  of  Caius  Cornelius  ac- 
cuses him,  and  that  ought  to  have  the  same  weight  as  if  his  father 
had  given  information  against  him."  O  wise  Cornelius — the 
father,  I  mean — who  left  all  the  reward  which  is  usually  given 
for  information,  but  has  got  all  the  discredit  which  a  confession 
can  involve,  through  the  accusation  brought  by  his  son!  How- 
ever, what  is  it  that  Cornelius  gives  information  of  by  the  mouth 
of  that  boy?  If  it  is  a  part  of  the  business  which  is  unknown  to 
me,  but  which  has  been  communicated  to  Hortensius,  let  Hor- 
tensius  reply.  If,  as  you  say,  his  statement  concerns  that  crew 
of  Autronius  and  Catiline,  when  they  intended  to  commit  a  mas- 
sacre in  the  Campus  Martius,  at  the  consular  comitia,  which 
were  held  by  me;  we  saw  Autronius  that  day  in  the  Campus. 
And  why  do  I  say  we  saw?  I  myself  saw  him  (for  you  at  that 
time,  O  judges,  had  no  anxiety,  no  suspicions;  I,  protected  by 
a  firm  guard  of  friends  at  that  time,  checked  the  forces  and  the 
endeavors  of  Catiline  and  Autronius).  Is  there,  then,  anyone 
who  says  that  Sylla  at  that  time  had  any  idea  of  coming  into  the 
Campus?  And  yet,  if  at  that  time  he  had  united  himself  with 
Catiline  in  that  society  of  wickedness,  why  did  he  leave  him? 
why  was  not  he  with  Autronius?  why,  when  their  cases  were 
similar,  are  not  similar  proofs  of  criminality  found?  But  since 
Cornelius  himself  even  now  hesitates  about  giving  information 
against  him,  he,  as  you  say,  contents  himself  with  filling  up  the 
outline  of  his  son's  information.  What  then  does  he  say  about 
that  night,  when,  according  to  the  orders  of  Catiline,  he  came 
into  the  Scythe-makers'*  street,  to  the  house  of  Marcus  Lecca, 
that  night  which  followed  the  sixth  of  November,  in  my  consul- 
ship ?  that  night  which  of  all  the  moments  of  the  conspiracy  was 
the  most  terrible  and  the  most  miserable.  Then  the  day  in  which 

*  This  was  the  name  of  a  street. 


136  CICERO 

Catiline  should  leave  the  city,  then  the  terms  on  which  the  rest 
should  remain  behind,  then  the  arrangement  and  division  of  the 
whole  city,  with  regard  to  the  conflagration  and  the  massacre, 
was  settled.  Then  your  father,  O  Cornelius,  as  he  afterward 
confessed,  begged  for  himself  that  especial  employment  of  go- 
ing the  first  thing  in  the  morning  to  salute  me  as  consul,  in  order 
that,  having  been  admitted,  according  to  my  usual  custom  and 
to  the  privilege  which  his  friendship  with  me  gave  him,  he  might 
slay  me  in  my  bed. 

At  this  time,  when  the  conspiracy  was  at  its  height;  when 
Catiline  was  starting  for  the  army,  and  Lentulus  was  being  left 
in  the  city;  when  Cassius  was  being  appointed  to  superintend 
the  burning  of  the  city,  and  Cethegus  the  massacre;  when 
Autronius  had  the  part  allotted  to  him  of  occupying  Italy;  when, 
in  short,  everything  was  being  arranged,  and  settled,  and  pre- 
pared; where,  O  Cornelius,  was  Sylla?  Was  he  at  Rome? 
No,  he  was  very  far  away.  Was  he  in  those  districts  to  which 
Catiline  was  betaking  himself?  He  was  still  farther  from  them. 
Was  he  in  the  Camertine,  or  Picenian,  or  Gallic  district?  lands 
which  the  disease,  as  it  were,  of  that  frenzy  had  infected  most 
particularly.  Nothing  is  further  from  the  truth;  for  he  was,  as 
I  have  said  already,  at  Naples.  He  was  in  that  part  of  Italy 
which  above  all  others  was  free  from  all  suspicion  of  being  im- 
plicated in  that  business.  What  then  does  he  state  in  his  in- 
formation, or  what  does  he  allege — I  mean  Cornelius,  or  you 
who  bring  these  messages  from  him?  He  says  that  gladiators 
were  bought,  under  pretence  of  some  games  to  be  exhibited  by 
Faustus,  for  the  purposes  of  slaughter  and  tumult.  Just  so; 
the  gladiators  are  mentioned  whom  we  know  that  he  was  bound 
to  provide  according  to  his  father's  will.  "  But  he  seized  on  a 
whole  household  of  gladiators;  and  if  he  had  left  that  alone, 
some  other  troop  might  have  discharged  the  duty  to  which 
Faustus  was  bound."  I  wish  this  troop  could  satisfy  not  only 
the  envy  of  parties  unfavorable  to  him,  but  even  the  expectations 
of  reasonable  men.  "  He  was  in  a  desperate  hurry,  when  the 
time  for  the  exhibition  was  still  far  off."  As  if,  in  reality,  the 
time  for  the  exhibition  was  not  drawing  very  near.  This  house- 
hold of  slaves  was  got  without  Faustus  having  any  idea  of  such 
a  step;  for  he  neither  knew  of  it,  nor  wished  it.  But  there  are 
letters  of  Faustus's  extant,  in  which  he  begs  and  prays  Publius 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        137 

Sylla  to  buy  gladiators,  and  to  buy  this  very  troop:  and  not 
only  were  such  letters  sent  to  Publius  Sylla,  but  they  were  sent 
also  to  Lucius  Caesar,  to  Quintus  Pompeius,  and  to  Caius  Mem- 
mius,  by  whose  advice  the  whole  business  was  managed.  But 
Cornelius5  was  appointed  to  manage  the  troop.  If  in  the  respect 
of  the  purchase  of  this  household  of  gladiators  no  suspicion  at- 
taches to  the  circumstances,  it  certainly  can  make  no  difference 
that  he  was  appointed  to  manage  them  afterward.  But  still,  he 
in  reality  only  discharged  the  servile  duty  of  providing  them 
with  arms;  but  he  never  did  superintend  the  men  themselves; 
that  duty  was  always  discharged  by  Balbus,  a  freedman  of 
Faustus. 

But  Sittius  was  sent  by  him  into  farther  Spain,  in  order  to  ex- 
cite sedition  in  that  province.  In  the  first  place,  O  judges,  Sit- 
tius departed,  in  the  consulship  of  Lucius  Julius  and  Caius  Figu- 
lus,  some  time  before  this  mad  business  of  Catiline's,  and  before 
there  was  any  suspicion  of  this  conspiracy.  In  the  second  place, 
he  did  not  go  there  for  the  first  time,  but  he  had  already  been 
there  several  years  before,  for  the  same  purpose  that  he  went 
now.  And  he  went,  not  only  with  an  object,  but  with  a  neces- 
sary object,  having  some  important  accounts  to  settle  with  the 
king  of  Mauritania.  But  then,  after  he  was  gone,  as  Sylla  man- 
aged his  affairs  as  his  agent,  he  sold  many  of  the  most  beautiful 
farms  of  Publius  Sittius,  and  by  this  means  paid  his  debts;  so 
that  the  motive  which  drove  the  rest  to  this  wickedness,  the  de- 
sire, namely,  of  retaining  their  possessions,  did  not  exist  in  the 
case  of  Sittius,  who  had  diminished  his  landed  property  to  pay 
his  debts.  But  now,  how  incredible,  how  absurd  is  the  idea  that 
a  man  who  wished  to  make  a  massacre  at  Rome,  and  to  burn 
down  this  city,  should  let  his  most  intimate  friend  depart,  should 
send  him  away  into  the  most  distant  countries!  Did  he  so  in 
order  the  more  easily  to  effect  what  he  was  endeavoring  to  do  at 
Rome,  if  there  were  seditions  in  Spain?  "  But  these  things 
were  done  independently,  and  had  no  connection  with  one  an- 
other." Is  it  possible,  then,  that  he  should  have  thought  it  de- 
sirable, when  engaged  in  such  important  affairs,  in  such  novel, 
and  dangerous,  and  seditious  designs,  to  send  away  a  man  thor- 
oughly attached  to  himself,  his  most  intimate  friend,  one  con- 

5  This    Cornelius   is    not   the    Roman  knight     mentioned    before,     but    some 
freedman  of  Publius  Sylla. 


138  CICERO 

nected  with  himself  by  reciprocal  good  offices  and  by  constant 
intercourse?  It  is  not  probable  that  he  should  send  away,  when 
in  difficulty,  and  in  the  midst  of  troubles  of  his  own  raising,  the 
man  whom  he  had  always  kept  with  him  in  times  of  prosperity 
and  tranquillity. 

But  is  Sittius  himself  (for  I  must  not  desert  the  cause  of  my 
old  friend  and  host)  a  man  of  such  a  character,  or  of  such  a 
family  and  such  a  school,  as  to  allow  us  to  believe  that  he  wished 
to  make  war  on  the  republic?  Can  we  believe  that  he,  whose 
father,  when  all  our  other  neighbors  and  borderers  revolted  from 
us,  behaved  with  singular  duty  and  loyalty  to  our  republic, 
should  think  it  possible  himself  to  undertake  a  nefarious  war 
against  his  country?  A  man  whose  debts  we  see  were  con- 
tracted, not  out  of  luxury,  but  from  a  desire  to  increase  his  prop- 
erty, which  led  him  to  involve  himself  in  business;  and  who, 
though  he  owed  debts  at  Rome,  had  very  large  debts  owing  to 
him  in  the  provinces  and  in  the  confederate  kingdoms;  and 
when  he  was  applying  for  them  he  would  not  allow  his  agents  to 
be  put  in  any  difficulty  by  his  absence,  but  preferred  having  all 
his  property  sold,  and  being  stripped  himself  of  a  most  beautiful 
patrimony,  to  allowing  any  delay  to  take  place  in  satisfying  his 
creditors.  And  of  men  of  that  sort  I  never,  O  judges,  had  any 
fear  when  I  was  in  the  middle  of  that  tempest  which  afflicted  the 
republic.  The  sort  of  men  who  were  formidable  and  terrible, 
were  those  who  clung  to  their  property  with  such  affection  that 
you  would  say  it  was  easier  to  tear  their  limbs  from  them  than 
their  lands;  but  Sittius  never  thought  that  there  was  such  a  re- 
lationship between  him  and  his  estates;  and  therefore  he  cleared 
himself  not  only  from  all  suspicion  of  such  wickedness  as  theirs, 
but  even  from  being  talked  about,  not  by  arms,  but  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  patrimony.  , 

But  now,  as  to  what  he  adds,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Pompeii 
were  excited  by  Sylla  to  join  that  conspiracy  and  that  abomin- 
able wickedness,  what  sort  of  statement  that  is  I  am  quite  un- 
able to  understand.  Do  the  people  of  Pompeii  appear  to  have 
joined  the  conspiracy?  Who  has  ever  said  so?  or  when  was 
there  the  slightest  suspicion  of  this  fact?  "  He  separated  then," 
says  he,  "  from  the  settlers,  in  order  that  when  he  had  excited 
dissensions  and  divisions  within,  he  might  be  able  to  have  the 
town  and  nation  of  Pompeii  in  his  power."  In  the  first  place, 


ORATION  IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS  SYLLA        139 

every  circumstance  of  the  dissension  between  the  natives  of 
Pompeii  and  the  settlers  was  referred  to  the  patrons  of  the  town, 
being  a  matter  of  long  standing,  and  having  been  going  on  many 
years.  In  the  second  place,  the  matter  was  investigated  by  the 
patrons  in  such  a  way,  that  Sylla  did  not  in  any  particular  disa- 
gree with  the  opinions  of  the  others.  And  lastly,  the  settlers 
themselves  understand  that  the  natives  of  Pompeii  were  not 
more  defended  by  Sylla  than  they  themselves  were.  And  this, 
O  judges,  you  may  ascertain  from  the  number  of  settlers,  most 
honorable  men,  here  present;  who  are  here  now,  and  are  anx- 
ious and  above  all  things  desirous  that  the  man,  the  patron,  the 
defender,  the  guardian  of  that  colony  (if  they  have  not  been  able 
to  see  him  in  the  safe  enjoyment  of  every  sort  of  good  fortune 
and  every  honor),  may  at  all  events,  in  the  present  misfortune  by 
which  he  is  attacked,  be  defended  and  preserved  by  your  means. 
The  natives  of  Pompeii  are  here  also  with  equal  eagerness,  who 
are  accused  as  well  as  he  is  by  the  prosecutors;  men  whose  dif- 
ferences with  the  settlers  about  walks  and  about  votes  have  not 
gone  to  such  lengths  as  to  make  them  differ  also  about  their 
common  safety.  And  even  this  virtue  of  Publius  Sylla  appears 
to  me  to  be  one  which  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  in  silence; 
that  though  that  colony  was  originally  settled  by  him,  and 
though  the  fortune  of  the  Roman  people  has  separated  the  in- 
terests of  the  settlers  from  the  fortunes  of  the  native  citizens  of 
Pompeii,  he  is  still  so  popular  among,  and  so  much  beloved  by 
both  parties,  that  he  seems  not  so  much  to  have  dispossessed  the 
one  party  of  their  lands  as  to  have  settled  both  of  them  in  that 
country. 

"  But  the  gladiators,  and  all  those  preparations  for  violence, 
were  got  together  because  of  the  motion  of  Csecilius."  And 
then  he  inveighed  bitterly  against  Csecilius,  a  most  virtuous  and 
most  accomplished  man,  of  whose  virtue  and  constancy,  O 
judges,  I  will  only  say  thus  much — that  he  behaved  in  such  a 
manner  with  respect  to  that  motion  which  he  brought  forward, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  doing  away  with,  but  only  of  relieving  his 
brother's  misfortune,  that,  though  he  wished  to  consult  his 
brother's  welfare,  he  was  unwilling  to  oppose  the  interests  of  the 
republic;  he  proposed  his  law  under  the  impulse  of  brotherly  af- 
fection, and  he  abandoned  it  because  he  was  dissuaded  from  it 
by  his  brother's  authority.  And  Sylla  is  accused  by  Lucius 


140  CICERO 

Caecilius,  in  that  business  in  which  both  of  them  deserve  praise. 
In  the  first  place,  Caecilius,  for  having  proposed  a  law  by  which 
he  appeared  to  wish  to  rescind  an  unjust  decision;  and  Sylla, 
who  reproved  him,  and  chose  to  abide  by  the  decision.  For  the 
constitution  of  the  republic  derives  its  principal  consistency 
from  formal  legal  decisions.  Nor  do  I  think  that  anyone  ought 
to  yield  so  much  to  his  love  for  his  brother  as  to  think  only  of 
the  welfare  of  his  own  relations,  and  to  neglect  the  common 
safety  of  all.  He  did  not  touch  the  decision  already  given,  but 
he  took  away  the  punishment  for  bribery  which  had  been  lately 
established  by  recent  laws.  And,  therefore,  by  this  motion  he 
was  seeking,  not  to  rescind  a  decision,  but  to  correct  a  defect  in 
the  law.  When  a  man  is  complaining  of  a  penalty,  it  is  not  the  de- 
cision with  which  he  is  finding  fault,  but  the  law.  For  the  con- 
viction is  the  act  of  judges,  and  that  is  let  stand;  the  penalty  is 
the  act  of  the  law,  and  that  may  be  lightened.  Do  not,  there- 
fore, alienate  from  your  cause  the  inclinations  of  those  orders  of 
men  which  preside  over  the  courts  of  justice  with  the  greatest 
authority  and  dignity.  No  one  has  attempted  to  annul  the  de- 
cision which  has  been  given;  nothing  of  that  sort  has  been  pro- 
posed. What  Caecilius  always  thought  while  grieved  at  the 
calamity  which  had  befallen  his  brother,  was,  that  the  power  of 
the  judges  ought  to  be  preserved  unimpaired,  but  that  the  se- 
verity of  the  law  required  to  be  mitigated. 

But  why  need  I  say  more  on  this  topic?  I  might  speak  per- 
haps, and  I  would  speak  willingly  and  gladly,  if  affection  and 
fraternal  love  had  impelled  Lucius  Caecilius  a  little  beyond  the 
limits  which  regular  and  strict  duty  requires  of  a  man ;  I  would 
appeal  to  your  feelings,  I  would  invoke  the  affection  which  every- 
one feels  for  his  own  relations;  I  would  solicit  pardon  for  the 
error  of  Lucius  Caecilius,  from  your  own  inmost  thoughts  and 
from  the  common  humanity  of  all  men.  The  law  was  proposed 
only  a  few  days ;  it  was  never  begun  to  be  put  in  train  tQ  be  car- 
ried; it  was  laid  on  the  table  in  the  Senate.  On  the  first  of  Jan- 
uary, when  we  had  summoned  the  Senate  to  meet  in  the  Capitol, 
nothing  took  precedence  of  it;  and  Quintus  Metellus  the  praetor 
said,  that  what  he  was  saying  was  by  the  command  of  Sylla;  that 
Sylla  did  not  wish  such  a  motion  to  be  brought  forward  respect- 
ing his  case.  From  that  time  forward  Caecilius  applied  himself 
to  many  measures  for  the  advantage  of  the  republic;  he  de- 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        i4I 

dared  that  he  by  his  intercession  would  stop  the  agrarian  law, 
which  was  in  every  part  of  it  denounced  and  defeated  by  me. 
He  resisted  infamous  attempts  at  corruption ;  he  never  threw 
any  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  authority  of  the  Senate.  He  be- 
haved himself  in  his  tribuneship  in  such  a  manner,  that,  laying 
aside  all  regard  for  his  own  domestic  concerns,  he  thought  of 
nothing  for  the  future  but  the  welfare  of  the  republic.  And  even 
in  regard  to  this  very  motion,  who  was  there  of  us  who  had  any 
fears  of  Sylla  or  Caecilius  attempting  to  carry  any  point  by  vio- 
lence? Did  not  all  the  alarm  that  existed  at  that  time,  all  the 
fear  and  expectation  of  sedition,  arise  from  the  villany  of  Autro- 
nius?  It  was  his  expressions  and  his  threats  which  were  bruited 
abroad;  it  was  the  sight  of  him,  the  multitudes  that  thronged  to 
him,  the  crowd  that  escorted  him,  and  the  bands  of  his  aban- 
doned followers,  that  caused  all  the  fear  of  sedition  which  agi- 
tated us.  Therefore,  Publius  Sylla,  as  this  most  odious  man 
was  then  his  comrade  and  partner,  not  only  in  honor  but  also  in 
misfortune,  was  compelled  to  lose  his  own  good  fortune,  and  to 
remain  under  a  cloud  without  any  remedy  or  alleviation. 

At  this  point  you  are  constantly  reading  passages  from  my 
letter,  which  I  sent  to  Cnaeus  Pompeius  about  my  own  achieve- 
ments, and  about  the  general  state  of  the  republic ;  and  out  of  it 
you  seek  to  extract  some  charge  against  Publius  Sylla.  And 
because  'I  wrote  that  an  attempt  of  incredible  madness,  con- 
ceived two  years  before,  had  broken  out  in  my  consulship,  you 
say  that  I,  by  this  expression,  have  proved  that  Sylla  was  in  the 
former  conspiracy.  I  suppose  I  think  that  Cnaeus  Piso,  and 
Catiline,  and  Vargunteius  were  not  able  to  do  any  wicked  or 
audacious  act  by  themselves,  without  the  aid  of  Publius  Sylla! 
But  even  if  anyone  had  had  a  doubt  on  that  subject  before, 
would  he  have  thought  (as  you  accuse  him  of  having  done)  of 
descending,  after  the  murder  of  your  father,  who  was  then  con- 
sul, into  the  Campus  on  the  first  of  January  with  the  lictors? 
This  suspicion,  in  fact,  you  removed  yourself,  when  you  said 
that  he  had  prepared  an  armed  band  and  cherished  violent  de- 
signs against  your  father,  in  order  to  make  Catiline  consul. 
And  if  I  grant  you  this,  then  you  must  grant  to  me  that  Sylla, 
when  he  was  voting  for  Catiline,  had  no  thoughts  of  recovering 
by  violence  his  own  consulship,  which  he  had  lost  by  a  judicial 
decision.  For  his  character  is  not  one,  O  judges,  which  is  at  all 


142  CICERO 

liable  to  the  imputation  of  such  enormous,  of  such  atrocious 
crimes. 

For  I  will  now  proceed,  after  I  have  refuted  all  the  charges 
against  him,  by  an  arrangement  contrary  to  that  which  is  usually 
adopted,  to  speak  of  the  general  coufse  of  life  and  habits  of  my 
client.  In  truth,  at  the  beginning  I  was  eager  to  encounter  the 
greatness  of  the  accusation,  to  satisfy  the  expectations  of  men, 
and  to  say  something  also  of  myself,  since  I  too  had  been 
accused.  But  now  I  must  call  you  back  to  that  point  to  which 
the  cause  itself,  even  if  I  said  nothing,  would  compel  you  to 
direct  all  your  attention. 

In  every  case,  O  judges,  which  is  of  more  serious  impor- 
tance than  usual,  we  must  judge  a  good  deal  as  to  what  everyone 
has  wished,  or  intended,  or  done,  not  from  the  counts  of  the  in- 
dictment, but  from  the  habits  of  the  person  who  is  accused. 
For  no  one  of  us  can  have  his  character  modelled  in  a  moment, 
nor  can  anyone's  course  of  life  be  altered,  or  his  natural  disposi- 
tion changed  on  a  sudden.  Survey  for  a  moment  in  your  mind's 
eye,  O  judges  (to  say  nothing  of  other  instances),  these  very 
men  who  were  implicated  in  this  wickedness.  Catiline  conspired 
against  the  republic.  Whose  ears  were  ever  unwilling  to  be- 
lieve in  this  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  man  who  had  spent  his  whole 
life,  from  his  boyhood  upward,  not  only  in  intemperance  and  de- 
bauchery, but  who  had  devoted  all  his  energies  and  all  his  zeal 
to  every  sort  of  enormity,  and  lust,  and  bloodshed?  Who  mar- 
velled that  that  man  died  fighting  against  his  country,  whom  all 
men  had  always  thought  born  for  civil  war?  Who  is  there  that 
recollects  the  way  in  which  Lentulus  was  a  partner  of  informers, 
or  the  insanity  of  his  caprices,  or  his  perverse  and  impious  super- 
stition, who  can  wonder  that  he  cherished  either  wicked  designs, 
or  insane  hopes  ?  Who  ever  thinks  of  Caius  Cethegus  and  his 
expedition  into  Spain,  and  the  wound  inflicted  on  Quintus  Me- 
tellus  Pius,  without  seeing  that  a  prison  was  built  on  purpose  to 
be  the  scene  of  his  punishment?  I  say  nothing  of  the  rest,  that 
there  may  be  some  end  to  my  instances.  I  only  ask  you,  silently 
to  recollect  all  those  men  who  are  proved  to  have  been  in  this 
conspiracy.  You  will  see  that  every  one  of  those  men  was  con- 
victed by  his  own  manner  of  life,  before  he  was  condemned  by 
our  suspicion.  And  as  for  Autronius  himself  (since  his  name  is 
the  most  nearly  connected  with  the  danger  in  which  my  client  is, 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        143 

and  with  the  accusation  which  is  brought  against  him),  did  not 
the  manner  in  which  he  had  spent  all  his  early  life  convict  him? 
He  had  always  been  audacious,  violent,  profligate.  We  know 
that  in  defending  himself  in  charges  of  adultery,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  use  not  only  the  most  infamous  language,  but  even  his 
fists  and  his  feet.  We  know  that  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
drive  men  from  their  estates,  to  murder  his  neighbors,  to  plun- 
der the  temples  of  the  allies,  to  disturb  the  courts  of  justice  by 
violence  and  arms;  in  prosperity  to  despise  everybody,  in  ad- 
versity to  fight  against  all  good  men;  never  to  regard  the  in- 
terests of  the  republic,  and  not  to  yield  even  to  fortune  herself. 
Even  if  he  were  not  convicted  by  the  most  irresistible  evidence, 
still  his  own  habits  and  his  past  life  would  convict  him. 

Come  now,  compare  with  those  men  the  life  of  Publius  Sylla, 
well  known  as  it  is  to  you  and  to  all  the  Roman  people;  and 
place  it,  O  judges,  as  it  were  before  your  eyes.  Has  there  ever 
been  any  act  or  exploit  of  his  which  has  seemed  to  anyone,  I 
will  not  say  audacious,  but  even  rather  inconsiderate?  Do  I  say 
any  act?  Has  any  word  ever  fallen  from  his  lips  by  which  any- 
one could  be  offended?  Ay,  even  in  that  terrible  and  disorderly 
victory  of  Lucius  Sylla,  who  was  found  more  gentle  or  more 
merciful  than  Publius  Sylla?  How  many  men's  wives  did  he 
not  save  by  begging  them  of  Lucius  Sylla !  How  many  men  are 
there  of  the  highest  rank  and  of  the  greatest  accomplishments, 
both  of  our  order  and  of  the  equestrian  body,  for  whose  safety 
he  laid  himself  under  obligations  to  Lucius  Sylla!  whom  I  might 
name,  for  they  have  no  objection ;  indeed  they  are  here  to  coun- 
tenance him  now,  with  the  most  grateful  feelings  towards  him. 
But,  because  that  service  is  a  greater  one  than  one  citizen  ought 
to  be  able  to  do  to  another,  I  entreat  of  you  to  impute  to  the 
times  the  fact  of  his  having  such  power,  but  to  give  him  himself 
the  credit  due  to  his  having  exerted  it  in  such  a  manner.  Why 
need  I  speak  of  the  other  virtues  of  his  life?  of  his  dignity?  of  his 
liberality?  of  his  moderation  in  his  own  private  affairs?  of  his 
splendor  on  public  occasions?  For,  though  in  these  points  he 
has  been  crippled  by  fortune,  yet  the  good  foundations  laid  by 
nature  are  visible.  What  a  house  was  his!  what  crowds  fre- 
quented it  daily !  How  great  was  the  dignity  of  his  behavior  to 
his  friends!  How  great  was  their  attachment  to  him!  What  a 
multitude  of  friends  had  he  of  every  order  of  the  people !  These 


144  CICERO 

things,  which  had  been  built  up  by  long  time  and  much  labor, 
one  single  hour  deprived  him  of.  Publius  Sylla,  O  judges,  re- 
ceived a  terrible  and  a  mortal  wound;  but  still  it  was  an  injury 
of  such  a  sort  as  his  way  of  life  and  his  natural  disposition  might 
seem  liable  to  be  exposed  to.  He  was  judged  to  have  too  great 
a  desire  for  honor  and  dignity.  If  no  one  else  was  supposed  to 
have  such  desires  in  standing  for  the  consulship,  then  he  was 
judged  to  be  more  covetous  than  the  rest.  But  if  this  desire  for 
the  consulship  has  existed  in  some  other  men  also,  then,  per- 
haps, fortune  was  a  little  more  unfavorable  to  him  than  to  others. 
But,  after  this  misfortune,  who  ever  saw  Publius  Sylla  otherwise 
than  grieving,  dejected,  and  out  of  spirits?  Who  ever  sus- 
pected that  he  was  avoiding  the  sight  of  men  and  the  light  of 
day,  out  of  hatred,  and  not  rather  out  of  shame?  For,  though 
he  had  many  temptations  to  frequent  this  city  and  the  forum,  by 
reason  of  the  great  attachment  of  his  friends  to  him — the  only 
consolation  which  remained  to  him  in  his  misfortunes — still  he 
kept  out  of  your  sight;  and  though  he  might  have  remained 
here,  as  far  as  the  law  went,  he  almost  condemned  himself  to 
banishment. 

In  such  modest  conduct  as  this,  O  judges,  and  in  such  a  life 
as  this,  will  you  believe  that  there  was  any  room  left  for  such 
enormous  wickedness?  Look  at  the  man  himself;  behold  his 
countenance.  Compare  the  accusation  with  his  course  of  life. 
Compare  his  life,  which  has  been  laid  open  before  you  from  his 
birth  up  to  this  day,  with  this  accusation.  I  say  nothing  of  the 
republic,  to  which  Sylla  has  always  been  most  devoted.  Did  he 
wish  these  friends  of  his,  being  such  men  as  they  are,  so  attached 
to  him,  by  whom  his  prosperity  had  been  formerly  adorned,  by 
whom  his  adversity  is  now  comforted  and  relieved,  to  perish 
miserably,  in  order  that  he  himself  might  be  at  liberty  to  pass  a 
most  miserable  and  infamous  existence  in  company  with  Lentu- 
lus,  and  Catiline,  and  Cethegus,  with  no  other  prospect  for  the 
future  but  a  disgraceful  death?  That  suspicion  is  not  consistent 
— it  is,  I  say,  utterly  at  variance  with  such  habits,  with  such 
modesty,  with  such  a  life  as  his,  with  the  man  himself.  That 
sprang  up,  a  perfectly  unexampled  sort  of  barbarity;  it  was  an 
incredible  and  amazing  insanity.  The  foulness  of  that  unheard- 
of  wickedness  broke  out  on  a  sudden,  taking  its  rise  from  the 
countless  vices  of  profligate  men  accumulated  ever  since  their 
youth. 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        145 

Think  not,  O  judges,  that  that  violence  and  that  attempt  was 
the  work  of  human  beings ;  for  no  nation  ever  was  so  barbarous 
or  so  savage,  as  to  have  (I  will  not  say  so  many,  but  even)  one 
implacable  enemy  to  his  country.  They  were  some  savage  and 
ferocious  beasts,  born  of  monsters,  and  clothed  in  human  form. 
Look  again  and  again,  O  judges;  for  there  is  nothing  too  vio- 
lent to  be  said  in  such  a  cause  as  this.  Look  deeply  and  thor- 
oughly into  the  minds  of  Catiline,  Autronius,  Cethegus,  Lentu- 
lus,  and  the  rest.  What  lusts  you  will  find  in  these  men,  what 
crimes,  what  baseness,  what  audacity,  what  incredible  insanity, 
what  marks  of  wickedness,  what  traces  of  parricide,  what  heaps 
of  enormous  guilt!  Out  of  the  great  diseases  of  the  republic, 
diseases  of  long  standing,  which  had  been  given  over  as  hopeless, 
suddenly  that  violence  broke  out;  in  such  a  way,  that  when  it 
was  put  down  and  got  rid  of,  the  state  might  again  be  able  to 
become  convalescent  and  to  be  cured;  for  there  is  no  one  who 
thinks  that  if  those  pests  remained  in  the  republic,  the  constitu- 
tion could  continue  to  exist  any  longer.  Therefore  they  were 
some  Furies  who  urged  them  on,  not  to  complete  their  wicked- 
ness, but  to  atone  to  the  republic  for  their  guilt  by  their  pun- 
ishment. 

Will  you  then,  O  judges,  now  turn  back  Publius  Sylla  into 
this  band  of  rascals,  out  of  that  band  of  honorable  men  who  are 
living  and  have  lived  as  his  associates?  Will  you  transfer  him 
from  this  body  of  citizens,  and  from  the  familiar  dignity  in  which 
he  lives  with  them,  to  the  party  of  impious  men,  to  that  crew 
and  company  of  parricides?  What  then  will  become  of  that 
most  impregnable  defence  of  modesty?  in  what  respect  will  the 
purity  of  our  past  lives  be  of  any  use  to  us?  For  what  time  is  the 
reward  of  the  character  which  a  man  has  gained  to  be  reserved, 
if  it  is  to  desert  him  at  his  utmost  need,  and  when  he  is  engaged 
in  a  contest  in  which  all  his  fortunes  are  at  stake — if  it  is  not  to 
stand  by  him  and  help  him  at  such  a  crisis  as  this?  Our  prose- 
cutor threatens  us  with  the  examinations  and  torture  of  our 
slaves ;  and  though  we  do  not  suspect  that  any  danger  can  arise 
to  us  from  them,  yet  pain  reigns  in  those  tortures ;  much  de- 
pends on  the  nature  of  everyone's  mind,  and  the  fortitude  of  a 
person's  body.  The  inquisitor  manages  everything;  caprice 
regulates  much,  hope  corrupts  them,  fear  disables  them,  so  that, 
in  the  straits  in  which  they  are  placed,  there  is  but  little  room  left 
for  truth. 
10 


146  CICERO 

Is  the  life  of  Publius  Sylla,  then,  to  be  put  to  the  torture?  is 
it  to  be  examined  to  see  what  lust  is  concealed  beneath  it? 
whether  any  crime  is  lurking  under  it,  or  any  cruelty,  or  any 
audacity?  There  will  be  no  mistake  in  our  cause,  O  judges,  no 
obscurity,  if  the  voice  of  his  whole  life,  which  ought  to  be  of  the 
very  greatest  weight,  is  listened  to  by  you.  In  this  cause  we  fear 
no  witness;  we  feel  sure  that  no  one  knows,  or  has  ever  seen,  or 
has  ever  heard  anything  against  us.  But  still,  if  the  considera- 
tion of  the  fortune  of  Publius  Sylla  has  no  effect  on  you,  O 
judges,  let  a  regard  for  your  own  fortune  weigh  with  you.  For 
this  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  you  who  have  lived  in  the 
greatest  elegance  and  safety,  that  the  causes  of  honorable  men 
should  not  be  judged  of  according  to  the  caprice,  or  enmity,  or 
worthlessness  of  the  witnesses;  but  that  in  important  investiga- 
tions and  sudden  dangers,  the  life  of  every  man  should  be  the 
most  credible  witness.  And  do  not  you,  O  judges,  abandon 
and  expose  it,  stripped  of  its  arms,  and  defenceless,  to  envy  and 
suspicion.  Fortify  the  common  citadel  of  all  good  men,  block 
up  the  ways  of  escape  resorted  to  by  the  wicked.  Let  that  wit- 
ness be  of  the  greatest  weight  in  procuring  either  safety  or  pun- 
ishment for  a  man,  which  is  the  only  one  that,  from  its  own  in- 
trinsic nature,  can  with  ease  be  thoroughly  examined,  and  which 
cannot  be  suddenly  altered  and  remodelled. 

What?  Shall  this  authority  (for  I  must  continually  speak  of 
that,  though  I  will  speak  of  it  with  timidity  and  moderation) — 
shall,  I  say,  this  authority  of  mine,  when  I  have  kept  aloof  from 
the  cause  of  everyone  else  accused  of  this  conspiracy,  and  have 
defended  Sylla  alone,  be  of  no  service  to  my  client?  This  is 
perhaps  a  bold  thing  to  say,  O  judges;  a  bold  thing,  if  we  are 
asking  for  anything;  a  bold  thing,  if,  when  everyone  else  is 
silent  about  us,  we  will  not  be  silent  ourselves.  But  if  we 
are  attacked,  if  we  are  accused,  if  we  are  sought  to  be  ren- 
dered unpopular,  then  surely,  O  judges,  you  will  allow  us  to 
retain  our  liberty,  even  if  we  cannot  quite  retain  all  our  dig- 
nity. All  the  men  of  consular  rank  are  accused  at  one  swoop ; 
so  that  the  name  of  the  most  honorable  office  in  the  state  ap- 
pears now  to  carry  with  it  more  unpopularity  than  dignity. 
"  They  stood  by  Catiline,"  says  he,  "  and  praised  him."  At  that 
time  there  was  no  conspiracy  known  of  or  discovered.  They 
were  defending  a  friend.  They  were  giving  their  suppliant  the 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        147 

countenance  of  their  presence.  They  did  not  think  the  moment 
of  his  most  imminent  danger  a  fit  time  to  reproach  him  with  the 
infamy  of  his  life.  Moreover,  even  your  own  father,  O  Tor- 
quatus,  when  consul,  was  the  advocate  of  Catiline  when  he  was 
prosecuted  on  a  charge  of  extortion ;  he  knew  he  was  a  bad  man, 
but  he  was  a  suppliant;  perhaps  he  was  an  audacious  man,  but 
he  had  once  been  his  friend.  And,  as  he  stood  by  him  after 
information  of  that  first  conspiracy  had  been  laid  before  him, 
he  showed  that  he  had  heard  something  about  him,  but  that 
he  had  not  believed  it.  "  But  he  did  not  countenance  him 
by  his  presence  at  the  other  trial,  when  the  rest  did."  If  he 
himself  had  afterward  learned  something  of  which  he  had  been 
ignorant  when  consul,  still  we  must  pardon  those  men  who 
.had  heard  nothing  since  that  time.  But  if  the  first  accusation 
had  weight,  it  ought  not  to  have  had  more  weight  when  it  was 
old  than  when  it  was  fresh.  But  if  your  parent,  even  when  he 
was  not  without  suspicion  of  danger  to  himself,  was  still  in- 
duced by  pity  to  do  honor  to  the  defence  of  a  most  worthless 
man  by  his  curule  chair,  by  his  own  private  dignity,  and  by 
that  of  his  office  as  consul,  then  what  reason  is  there  for  re- 
proaching the  men  of  consular  rank  who  gave  Catiline  the 
countenance  of  their  presence  ?  "  But  the  same  men  did  not 
countenance  those  who  were  tried  for  their  accession  to  this 
conspiracy  before  Sylla."  Certainly  not;  they  resolved  that 
no  aid,  no  assistance,  no  support  ought  to  be  given  by  them 
to  men  implicated  in  such  wickedness.  And  that  I  may  speak 
for  a  moment  of  their  constancy  and  attachment  to  the  re- 
public, whose  silent  virtue  and  loyalty  bears  witness  in  behalf 
of  every  one  of  them,  and  needs  no  ornaments  of  language 
from  anyone — can  anyone  say  that  any  time  there  were  men 
of  consular  rank  more  virtuous,  more  fearless,  or  more  firm, 
than  those  who  lived  in  these  critical  and  perilous  times,  in 
which  the  republic  was  nearly  overwhelmed?  Who  of  them  did 
not,  with  the  greatest  openness,  and  bravery,  and  earnestness, 
give  his  whole  thoughts  to  the  common  safety?  Nor  need  I 
confine  what  I  say  to  the  men  of  consular  rank.  For  this  credit 
is  due  to  all  those  accomplished  men  who  have  been  praetors,  and 
indeed  to  the  whole  Senate  in  common ;  so  that  it  is  plain  that 
never,  in  the  memory  of  man,  was  there  more  virtue  in  that 
order,  greater  attachment  to  the  republic,  or  more  consummate 


I48  CICERO 

wisdom.  But  because  the  men  of  consular  rank  were  especially 
mentioned,  I  thought  I  ought  to  say  thus  much  in  their  behalf; 
and  that  that  would  be  enough,  as  the  recollection  of  all  men 
would  join  me  in  bearing  witness,  that  there  was  not  one  man  of 
that  rank  who  did  not  labor  with  all  his  virtue,  and  energy,  and 
influence,  to  preserve  the  republic. 

But  what  comes  next?  Do  I,  who  never  praised  Catiline, 
who  never  as  consul  countenanced  Catiline  when  he  was  on  his 
trial,  who  have  given  evidence  respecting  the  conspiracy  against 
others — do  I  seem  to  you  so  far  removed  from  sanity,  so  forget- 
ful of  my  own  consistency,  so  forgetful  of  all  the  exploits  which 
I  have  performed,  as,  though  as  consul  I  waged  war  against  the 
conspirators,  now  to  wish  to  preserve  then-  leader,  and  to  bring 
my  mind  now  to  defend  the  cause  and  the  life  of  that  same  man 
whose  weapon  I  lately  blunted,  and  whose  flames  I  have  but  just 
extinguished?  If,  O  judges,  the  republic  itself,  which  has  been 
preserved  by  my  labors  and  dangers,  did  not  by  its  dignity  re- 
call me  to  wisdom  and  consistency,  still  it  is  an  instinct  im- 
planted by  nature,  to  hate  forever  the  man  whom  you  have  once 
feared,  with  whom  you  have  contended  for  life  and  fortune,  and 
from  whose  plots  you  have  escaped.  But  when  my  chief  honors 
and  the  great  glory  of  all  my  exploits  are  at  stake;  when,  as 
often  as  anyone  is  convicted  of  any  participation  in  this  wicked- 
ness, the  recollection  of  the  safety  of  the  city  having  been  se- 
cured by  me  is  renewed,  shall  I  be  so  mad  as  to  allow  those 
things  which  I  did  in  behalf  of  the  common  safety  to  appear 
now  to  have  been  done  by  me  more  by  chance  and  by  good  for- 
tune than  by  virtue  and  wisdom?  "What,  then,  do  you  mean? 
Do  you,"  someone  will  say,  perhaps,  "  claim  that  a  man  shall  be 
judged  innocent,  just  because  you  have  defended  him?  "  But  I, 
O  judges,  not  only  claim  nothing  for  myself  to  which  anyone 
can  object,  but  I  even  give  up  and  abandon  pretensions  which 
are  granted  and  allowed  me  by  everyone.  I  am  not  living  in 
such  a  republic — I  have  not  exposed  my  life  to  all  sorts  of  dan- 
gers for  the  sake  of  my  country  at  such  a  time — they  whom  I 
have  defeated  are  not  so  utterly  extinct — nor  are  those  whom  I 
have  preserved  so  grateful,  that  I  should  think  it  safe  to  attempt 
to  assume  more  than  all  my  enemies  and  enviers  may  endure. 
It  would  appear  an  offensive  thing  for  him  who  investigated  the 
conspiracy,  who  laid  it  open,  who  crushed  it,  whom  the  Senate 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        149 

thanked  in  unprecedented  language,  to  whom  the  Senate  de- 
creed a  supplication,  which  they  had  never  decreed  to  anyone 
before  for  civil  services,  to  say  in  a  court  of  justice,  "  I  would 
not  have  defended  him  if  he  had  ben  a  conspirator."  I  do  not 
say  that,  because  it  might  be  offensive ;  I  say  this,  which  in  these 
trials  relating  to  the  conspiracy  I  may  claim  a  right  to  say, 
speaking  not  with  authority  but  with  modesty,  "  I  who  investi- 
gated and  chastised  that  conspiracy  would  certainly  not  defend 
Sylla,  if  I  thought  that  he  had  been  a  conspirator."  I,  O  judges, 
say  this,  which  I  said  at  the  beginning,  that  when  I  was  making 
a  thorough  inquiry  into  those  great  dangers  which  were  threat- 
ening everybody,  when  I  was  hearing  many  things,  not  believ- 
ing everything,  but  guarding  against  everything,  not  one  word 
was  said  to  me  by  anyone  who  gave  information,  nor  did  any- 
one hint  any  suspicion,  nor  was  there  the  slightest  mention  in 
anyone's  letters,  of  Publius  Sylla. 

Wherefore  I  call  you,  O  gods  of  my  country  and  of  my  house- 
hold, to  witness — you  who  preside  over  this  city  and  this  em- 
pire— you  who  have  preserved  this  empire,  and  these  our  liber- 
ties, and  the  Roman  people — you  who  by  your  divine  assistance 
protected  these  houses  and  temples  when  I  was  consul — that  I, 
with  a  free  and  honest  heart,  am  defending  the  cause  of  Publius 
Sylla ;  that  no  crime  has  been  concealed  by  me  knowingly,  that 
no  wickedness  undertaken  against  the  general  safety  has  been 
kept  back  or  defended  by  me.  I,  when  consul,  found  out  noth- 
ing about  this  man,  I  suspected  nothing,  I  heard  of  nothing. 
Therefore  I,  the  same  person  who  have  seemed  to  be  vehement 
against  some  men,  inexorable  toward  the  rest  of  the  conspirators 
(I  paid  my  country  what  I  owed  her;  what  I  am  now  doing  is 
due  to  my  own  invariable  habits  and  natural  disposition),  am  as 
merciful,  O  judges,  as  you  yourselves.  I  am  as  gentle  as  the 
most  soft-hearted  among  you.  As  far  as  I  was  vehement  in 
union  with  you,  I  did  nothing  except  what  I  was  compelled  to 
do :  I  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  republic  when  in  great  dan- 
ger; I  raised  my  sinking  country;  influenced  by  pity  for  the 
whole  body  of  citizens,  we  were  then  as  severe  as  was  necessary. 
The  safety  of  all  men  would  have  been  lost  forever  in  one  night,  if 
that  severity  had  not  been  exercised ;  but  as  I  was  led  on  to  the 
punishment  of  wicked  men  by  my  attachment  to  the  republic,  so 
now  I  am  led  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  innocent  by  my  own 
inclination. 


CICERO 

I  see,  O  judges,  that  in  this  Publius  Sylla  there  is  nothing 
worthy  of  hatred,  and  many  circumstances  deserving  our  pity. 
For  he  does  not  now,  O  judges,  flee  to  you  as  a  suppliant  for 
the  sake  of  warding  off  calamity  from  himself,  but  to  prevent 
his  whole  family  and  name  from  being  branded  with  the  stigma 
of  nefarious  baseness.  For  as  for  himself,  even  if  he  be  acquit- 
ted by  your  decision,  what  honors  has  he,  what  comforts  has  he 
for  the  rest  of  his  life,  in  which  he  can  find  delight  or  enjoy- 
ment ?  His  house,  I  suppose,  will  be  adorned ;  the  images  of 
his  ancestors  will  be  displayed ;  he  himself  will  resume  his  orna- 
ments and  his  usual  dress.  All  these  things,  O  judges,  are  lost 
to  him;  all  the  insignia  and  ornaments  of  his  family,  and  his 
name,  and  his  honor,  were  lost  by  the  calamity  of  that  one  de- 
cision. But  he  is  anxious  not  to  be  called  the  destroyer,  the 
betrayer,  the  enemy  of  his  country ;  he  is  fearful  of  leaving  such 
disgrace  to  a  family  of  such  renown;  he  is  anxious  that  this 
unhappy  child  may  not  be  called  the  son  of  a  conspirator,  a 
criminal,  and  a  traitor.  He  fears  for  this  boy,  who  is  much 
dearer  to  him  than  his  own  life,  anxious,  though  he  cannot 
leave  him  the  undiminished  inheritance  of  his  honors,  at  all 
events  not  to  leave  him  the  undying  recollection  of  his  infamy. 
This  little  child  entreats  you,  O  judges,  to  allow  him  occasion- 
ally to  congratulate  his  father,  if  not  with  his  fortunes  unim- 
paired, at  least  to  congratulate  him  in  his  affliction.  The  roads 
to  the  courts  of  justice  and  to  the  forum  are  better  known  to 
that  unhappy  boy  than  the  roads  to  his  play-ground  or  to  his 
school.  I  am  contending  now,  O  judges,  not  for  the  life  of 
Publius  Sylla,  but  for  his  burial.  His  life  was  taken  from  him 
at  the  former  trial ;  we  are  now  striving  to  prevent  his  body 
from  being  cast  out.  For  what  has  he  left  which  need  detain 
him  in  this  life  ?  or  what  is  there  to  make  anyone  think  such  an 
existence  life  at  all? 

Lately  Publius  Sylla  was  a  man  of  such  consideration  in  the 
state  that  no  one  thought  himself  superior  to  him  either  in 
honor,  or  in  influence,  or  in  good  fortune.  Now,  stripped  of 
all  his  dignity,  he  does  not  seek  to  recover  what  has  been  taken 
away  from  him ;  but  he  does  entreat  you,  O  judges,  not  to  take 
from  him  the  little  which  fortune  has  left  him  in  his  disasters — 
namely,  the  permission  to  bewail  his  calamities  in  company  with 
his  parent,  with  his  children,  with  his  brother,  and  with  his 


ORATION   IN  DEFENCE  OF  PUBLIUS   SYLLA        151 

friends.  It  would  be  becoming  for  even  you  yourself,  O  Tor- 
quatus,  to  be  by  this  time  satisfied  with  the  miseries  of  my  client. 
Although  you  had  taken  nothing  from  Sylla  except  the  consul- 
ship, yet  you  ought  to  be  content  with  that.  For  it  was  a  con- 
test for  honor,  and  not  enmity,  which  originally  induced  you  to 
take  up  this  cause.  But  now  that,  together  with  his  honor, 
everything  else  has  been  taken  from  him — now  that  he  is  deso- 
late, crushed  by  this  miserable  and  grievous  fortune,  what  is 
there  which  you  can  wish  for  more  ?  Do  you  wish  to  deprive 
him  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  light  of  day,  full  as  it  is  to  him  of 
tears  and  grief,  in  which  he  now  lives  amid  the  greatest  grief 
and  torment  ?  He  would  gladly  give  it  up,  if  you  would  release 
him  from  the  foul  imputation  of  this  most  odious  crime.  Do 
you  seek  to  banish  him  as  an  enemy,  when,  if  you  were  really 
hard-hearted,  you  would  derive  greater  enjoyment  from  seeing 
his  miseries  than  from  hearing  of  them  ?  Oh,  wretched  and  un- 
happy was  that  day  on  which  Publius  Sylla  was  declared  consul 
by  all  the  centuries !  O  how  false  were  the  hopes !  how  fleeting 
the  good  fortune !  how  blind  the  desire !  how  unreasonable  the 
congratulations !  How  soon  was  all  that  scene  changed  from 
joy  and  pleasure  to  mourning  and  tears,  when  he,  who  but  a 
short  time  before  had  been  consul  elect,  had  on  a  sudden  no 
trace  left  of  his  previous  dignity.  For  what  evil  was  there  which 
seemed  then  to  be  wanting  to  him  when  he  was  thus  stripped  of 
honor,  and  fame,  and  fortune  ?  or  what  room  could  there  be  left 
for  any  new  calamity  ?  The  same  fortune  continues  to  pursue 
him  which  followed  him  from  the  first ;  she  finds  a  new  source  of 
grief  for  him ;  she  will  not  allow  an  unfortunate  man  to  perish 
when  he  has  been  afflicted  in  only  one  way,  and  by  only  one 
disaster. 

But  now,  O  judges,  I  am  hindered  by  my  own  grief  of  mind 
from  saying  any  more  about  the  misery  of  my  client.  That 
consideration  belongs  to  you,  O  judges.  I  rest  the  whole 
cause  on  your  mercy  and  your  humanity.  You,  after  a  rejec- 
tion of  several  judges,  of  which  we  had  no  suspicion,  have  sat 
as  judges  suddenly  appointed  to  hear  our  cause,  having  been 
chosen  by  our  accusers  from  their  hopes  of  your  severity,  but 
having  been  also  given  to  us  by  fortune  as  the  protectors  of  our 
innocence.  As  I  have  been  anxious  as  to  what  the  Roman  peo- 
ple thought  of  me,  because  I  had  been  severe  toward  wicked 


I52  CICERO 

men,  and  so  have  undertaken  the  first  defence  of  an  innocent 
man  that  was  offered  to  me,  so  do  you  also  mitigate  that  sever- 
ity of  the  courts  of  justice  which  has  been  exerted  now  for  some 
months  against  the  most  audacious  of  men,  by  your  lenity  and 
mercy.  The  cause  itself  ought  to  obtain  this  from  you;  and 
besides,  it  is  due  to  your  virtue  and  courage  to  show  that  you 
are  not  the  man  to  whom  it  is  most  advisable  for  an  accuser  to 
apply  after  having  rejected  other  judges.  And  in  leaving  the 
matter  to  your  decision,  O  judges,  I  exhort  you,  with  all  the 
earnestness  that  my  affection  for  you  warrants  me  in  using,  so 
to  act  that  we,  by  our  common  zeal  (since  we  are  united  in  the 
service  of  the  republic),  and  you,  by  your  humanity  and  mercy, 
may  repel  from  us  both  the  false  charge  of  cruelty. 


SPEECH 

IN    DEFENCE    OF 
AULUS     LICINIUS    ARCHIAS 


THE  ARGUMENT 

Archias  was  a  Greek  poet,  a  native  of  Antioch,  who  came  to  Rome 
in  the  train  of  Lucullus,  when  Cicero  was  a  child.  He  assumed  the 
names  of  Aulus  and  Licinius,  the  last  out  of  compliment  to  the  Lu- 
culli,  and  Cicero  had  been  for  some  time  a  pupil  of  his,  and  had 
retained  a  great  regard  for  him.  A  man  of  the  name  of  Gracchus 
now  prosecuted  him  as  a  false  pretender  to  the  rights  of  a  Roman 
citizen,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Lex  Papiria.  But  Cicero 
contends  that  he  is  justified  by  that  very  law,  for  Archias  before  com- 
ing to  Rome  had  stayed  at  Heraclea,  a  confederate  city,  and  had  been 
enrolled  as  a  Heraclean  citizen;  and  in  the  Lex  Papiria  it  was  ex- 
pressly provided  that  those  who  were  on  the  register  of  any  con- 
federate city  as  its  citizens,  if  they  were  residing  in  Italy  at  the  time 
the  law  was  passed,  and  if  they  made  a  return  of  themselves  to  the 
praetor  within  sixty  days,  were  to  be  exempt  from  its  .operation. 
However,  the  greatest  part  of  this  oration  is  occupied,  not  in  legal 
arguments,  but  in  a  panegyric  on  Archias,  who  is  believed  to  have 
died  soon  afterwards;  and  he  must  have  been  a  very  old  man  at  the 
time  that  it  was  spoken,  as  it  was  nearly  forty  years  previously  that 
he  had  first  come  to  Rome. 


154 


SPEECH 
IN   DEFENCE  OF  AULUS   LICINIUS   ARCHIAS 

IF  there  be  any  natural  ability  in  me, O  judges — and  I  know 
how  slight  that  is ;  or  if  I  have  any  practice  as  a  speaker — 
and  in  that  line  I  do  not  deny  that  I  have  some  experience ; 
or  if  I  have  any  method  in  my  oratory,  drawn  from  my  study 
of  the  liberal  sciences,  and  from  that  careful  training  to  which 
I  admit  that  at  no  part  of  my  life  have  I  ever  been  disinclined ; 
certainly,  of  all  those  qualities,  this  Aulus  Licinius  is  entitled 
to  be  among  the  first  to  claim  the  benefit  from  me  as  his  peculiar 
right.  For  as  far  as  ever  my  mind  can  look  back  upon  the 
space  of  time  that  is  past,  and  recall  the  memory  of  its  earliest 
youth,  tracing  my  life  from  that  starting-point,  I  see  that 
Archias  was  the  principal  cause  of  my  undertaking,  and  the 
principal  means  of  my  mastering,  those  studies.  And  if  this 
voice  of  mine,  formed  by  his  encouragement  and  his  precepts, 
has  at  times  been  the  instrument  of  safety  to  others,  undoubt- 
edly we  ought,  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power,  to  help  and  save  the 
very  man  from  whom  we  have  received  that  gift  which  has  en- 
abled us  to  bring  help  to  many  and  salvation  to  some.  And 
lest  anyone  should,  perchance,  marvel  at  this  being  said  by  me, 
as  the  chief  of  his  ability  consists  in  something  else,  and  not 
in  this  system  and  practice  of  eloquence,  he  must  be  told  that 
even  we  ourselves  have  never  been  wholly  devoted  to  this  study. 
In  truth,  all  the  arts  which  concern  the  civilizing  and  humaniz- 
ing of  men,  have  some  link  which  binds  them  together,  and  are, 
as  it  were,  cemented  by  some  relationship  to  one  another. 

And,  that  it  may  not  appear  marvellous  to  any  one  of  you,  that 
I,  in  a  formal  proceeding  like  this,  and  in  a  regular  court  of  jus- 
tice, when  an  action  is  being  tried  before  a  praetor  of  the  Roman 
people,  a  most  eminent  man,  and  before  most  impartial  judges, 
before  such  an  assembly  and  multitude  of  people  as  I  see  around 

155 


156  CICERO 

me,  employ  this  style  of  speaking,  which  is  at  variance,  not  only 
with  the  ordinary  usages  of  courts  of  justice,  but  with  the  gen- 
eral style  of  forensic  pleading;  I  entreat  you  in  this  cause  to 
grant  me  this  indulgence,  suitable  to  this  defendant,  and  as  I 
trust  not  disagreeable  to  you — the  indulgence,  namely,  of  al- 
lowing me,  when  speaking  in  defence  of  a  most  sublime  poet 
and  most  learned  man,  before  this  concourse  of  highly  educated 
citizens,  before  this  most  polite  and  accomplished  assembly, 
and  before  such  a  praetor  as  him  who  is  presiding  at  this  trial, 
to  enlarge  with  a  little  more  freedom  than  usual  on  the  study 
of  polite  literature  and  refined  arts,  and,  speaking  in  the  charac- 
ter of  such  a  man  as  that,  who,  owing  to  the  tranquillity  of  his 
life  and  the  studies  to  which  he  has  devoted  himself,  has  but 
little  experience  of  the  dangers  of  a  court  of  justice,  to  employ 
a  new  and  unusual  style  of  oratory.  And  if  I  feel  that  that 
indulgence  is  given  and  allowed  me  by  you,  I  will  soon  cause 
you  to  think  that  this  Aulus  Licinius  is  a  man  who  not  only, 
now  that  he  is  a  citizen,  does  not  deserve  to  be  expunged  from 
the  list  of  citizens,  but  that  he  is  worthy,  even  if  he  were  not  one, 
of  being  now  made  a  citizen. 

For  when  first  Archias  grew  out  of  childhood,  and  out  of  the 
studies  of  those  arts  by  which  young  boys  are  gradually  trained 
and  refined,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  writing.  First 
of  all  at  Antioch  (for  he  was  born  there,  and  was  of  high  rank 
there),  formerly  an  illustrious  and  wealthy  city,  and  the  seat 
of  learned  men  and  of  liberal  sciences ;  and  there  it  was  his  lot 
speedily  to  show  himself  superior  to  all  in  ability  and  credit. 
Afterward,  in  the  other  parts  of  Asia,  and  over  all  Greece,  his 
arrival  was  so  talked  of  wherever  he  came,  that  the  anxiety  with 
which  he  was  expected  was  even  greater  than  the  fame  of  his 
genius ;  but  the  admiration  which  he  excited  when  he  had  ar- 
rived, exceeded  even  the  anxiety  with  which  he  was  expected. 
Italy  was  at  that  time  full  of  Greek  science  and  of  Greek  systems, 
and  these  studies  were  at  that  time  cultivated  in  Latium  with 
greater  zeal  than  they  now  are  in  the  same  towns ;  and  here,  too, 
at  Rome,  on  account  of  the  tranquil  state  of  the  republic  at  that 
time,  they  were  far  from  neglected.  Therefore,  the  people  of 
Tarentum,  and  Rhegium,  and  Neapolis,  presented  him  with  the 
freedom  of  the  city  and  with  other  gifts ;  and  all  men  who  were 
capable  of  judging  of  genius  thought  him  deserving  of  their  ac- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          157 

quaintance  and  hospitality.  When,  from  this  great  celebrity 
of  his,  he  had  become  known  to  us  though  absent,  he  came  to 
Rome,  in  the  consulship  of  Marius  and  Catulus.  It  was  his  lot 
to  have  those  men  as  his  first  consuls,  the  one  of  whom  could 
supply  him  with  the  most  illustrious  achievements  to  write 
about,  the  other  could  give  him,  not  only  exploits  to  celebrate, 
but  his  ears  and  judicious  attention.  Immediately  the  Luculli, 
though  Archias  was  as  yet  but  a  youth,1  received  him  in  their 
house.  But  it  was  not  only  to  his  genius  and  his  learning,  but 
also  to  his  natural  disposition  and  virtue,  that  it  must  be  attrib- 
uted that  the  house  which  was  the  first  to  be  opened  to  him  in 
his  youth,  is  also  the  one  in  which  he  lives  most  familiarly  in  his 
old  age.  He  at  that  time  gained  the  affection  of  Quintus  Metel- 
lus,  that  great  man  who  was  the  conqueror  of  Numidia,  and  his 
son  Pius.  He  was  eagerly  listened  to  by  Marcus  JEmilius ;  he 
associated  with  Quintus  Catulus — both  with  the  father  and  the 
sons.  It  was  highly  respected  by  Lucius  Crassus ;  and  as  for 
the  Luculli,  and  Drusus,  and  the  Octavii,  and  Cato,  and  the 
whole  family  of  the  Hortensii,  he  was  on  terms  of  the  greatest 
possible  intimacy  with  all  of  them,  and  was  held  by  them  in  the 
greatest  honor.  For,  not  only  did  everyone  cultivate  his  ac- 
quaintance who  wished  to  learn  or  to  hear  anything,  but  even 
everyone  who  pretended  to  have  such  a  desire. 

In  the  mean  time,  after  a  sufficiently  long  interval,  having 
gone  with  Lucius  Lucullus  into  Sicily,  and  having  afterward 
departed  from  that  province  in  the  company  of  the  same  Lucul- 
lus, he  came  to  Heraclea.  And  as  that  city  was  one  which  en- 
joyed all  the  rights  of  a  confederate  city  to  their  full  extent,  he 
became  desirous  of  being  enrolled  as  a  citizen  of  it.  And,  being 
thought  deserving  of  such  a  favor  for  his  own  sake,  when  aided 
by  the  influence  and  authority  of  Lucullus,  he  easily  obtained 

1  The  Latin  is  praetextatus.     Before  he  completion     of     the     fourteenth     year 

had  exchanged  the  praetexta  for  the  toga  though  it  is  certain  that  the  completion 

vinhs.     It   has   generally   been  thought  of  the   fourteenth   year  was   not  always 

that  the  age  at  which  this  exchange  was  the    time    observed."      Even    supposing 

made     was     seventeen,     but     Professor  Archias  to  have  been  seventeen,   it  ap- 

Long,  the  highest  possible  authority  on  pears   rather   an    early   age   for   him   to 

all  subjects  of  Latin  literature,  and  es-  have    established    such   a   reputation    as 

g:cially    on    Roman    law,    says    (Smith,  Cicero   speaks   of,   and   perhaps,   as   not 

ictionary  of  Antiquities,  v.  Impubes),  being  at  that  time  a  Roman  citizen,  he 

The  toga  virihs  was   assumed  at  the  probably  did  not  wear  the  praetexta  at 

Liberalia  in  the  month  of  March;   and  all;   the  expression   is  not  to   be   taken 

though    no    age    appears    to    have    been  literally,    but   we   are   merely   to   under- 

positively    fixed    for    the    ceremony,    it  stand    generally    that    he    was    quite    a 

probably  took  place,  as  a  general  rule,  young  man. 
on   the  feast  which   next  followed  the 


158  CICERO 

it  from  the  Heracleans.  The  freedom  of  the  city  was  given 
him  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  law  of  Silvanus  and 
Carbo :  "  If  any  men  had  been  enrolled  as  citizens  of  the  con- 
federate cities,  and  if,  at  the  time  that  the  law  was  passed,  they 
had  a  residence  in  Italy,  and  if  within  sixty  days  they  had  made 
a  return  of  themselves  to  the  praetor."  As  he  had  now  had  a 
residence  at  Rome  for  many  years,  he  returned  himself  as  a  citi- 
zen to  the  prsetor,  Quintus  Metellus,  his  most  intimate  friend. 
If  we  have  nothing  else  to  speak  about  except  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship and  the  law,  I  need  say  no  more.  The  cause  is  over. 
For  which  of  all  these  statements,  O  Gratius,  can  be  invali- 
dated ?  Will  you  deny  that  he  was  enrolled,  at  the  time  I  speak 
of,  as  a  citizen  of  Heraclea  ?  There  is  a  man  present  of  the  very 
highest  authority,  a  most  scrupulous  and  truthful  man,  Lucius 
Lucullus,  who  will  tell  you  not  that  he  thinks  it,  but  that  he 
knows  it ;  not  that  he  has  heard  of  it,  but  that  he  saw  it ;  not  even 
that.he  was  present  when  it  was  done,  but  that  he  actually  did  it 
himself.  Deputies  from  Heraclea  are  present,  men  of  the  high- 
est rank ;  they  have  come  expressly  on  account  of  this  trial,  with 
a  commission  from  their  city,  and  to  give  evidence  on  the  part 
of  their  city ;  and  they  say  that  he  was  enrolled  as  a  Heraclean. 
On  this  you  ask  for  the  public  registers  of  the  Heracleans, 
which  we  all  know  were  destroyed  in  the  Italian  war,  when  the 
register-office  was  burned.  It  is  ridiculous  to  say  nothing  to 
the  proofs  which  we  have,  but  to  ask  for  proofs  which  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  have ;  to  disregard  the  recollection  of  men, 
and  to  appeal  to  the  memory  of  documents ;  and  when  you  have 
the  conscientious  evidence  of  a  most  honorable  man,  the  oath 
and  good  faith  of  a  most  respectable  municipality,  to  reject 
those  things  which  cannot  by  any  possibility  be  tampered  with, 
and  to  demand  documentary  evidence,  though  you  say  at  the 
same  moment  that  that  is  constantly  played  tricks  with.  "  But 
he  had  no  residence  at  Rome."  What,  not  he  who  for  so  many 
years  before  the  freedom  of  the  city  was  given  to  him,  had  estab- 
lished the  abode  of  all  his  property  and  fortunes  at  Rome? 
"  But  he  did  not  return  himself."  Indeed  he  did,  and  in  that 
return  which  alone  obtains  with  the  college  of  praetors  the 
authority  of  a  public  document. 

For  as  the  returns  of  Appius  were  said  to  have  been  kept  care- 
lessly, and  as  the  trifling  conduct  of  Gabinius,  before  he  was 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          159 

convicted,  and  his  misfortune  after  his  condemnation,  had  taken 
away  all  credit  from  the  public  registers,  Metellus,  the  most 
scrupulous  and  moderate  of  all  men,  was  so  careful,  that  he 
came  to  Lucius  Lentulus,  the  praetor,  and  to  the  judges,  and 
said  that  he  was  greatly  vexed  at  an  erasure  which  appeared 
in  one  name.  In  these  documents,  therefore,  you  will  see  no 
erasure  affecting  the  name  of  Aulus  Licinius.  And  as  this  is 
the  case,  what  reason  have  you  for  doubting  about  his  citizen- 
ship, especially  as  he  was  enrolled  as  a  citizen  of  other  cities 
also  ?  In  truth,  as  men  in  Greece  were  in  the  habit  of  giving 
rights  of  citizenship  to  many  men  of  very  ordinary  qualifica- 
tions, and  endowed  with  no  talents  at  all,  or  with  very  moderate 
ones,  without  any  payment,  it  is  likely,  I  suppose,  that  the  Rheg- 
ians,and  Locrians,and  Neapolitans,  and  Tarentines  should  have 
been  unwilling  to  give  to  this  man,  enjoying  the  highest  possi- 
ble reputation  for  genius,  what  they  were  in  the  habit  of  giving 
even  to  theatrical  artists.  What,  when  other  men,  who  not  only 
after  the  freedom  of  the  city  had  been  given,  but  even  after  the 
passing  of  the  Papian  law,  crept  somehow  or  other  into  the 
registers  of  those  municipalities,  shall  he  be  rejected  who  does 
not  avail  himself  of  those  other  lists  in  which  he  is  enrolled, 
because  he  always  wished  to  be  considered  a  Heraclean  ?  You 
demand  to  see  our  own  censor's  returns.  I  suppose  no  one 
knows  that  at  the  time  of  the  last  census  he  was  with  that  most 
illustrious  general,  Lucius  Lucullus,  with  the  army ;  that  at  the 
time  of  the  preceding  one  he  was  with  the  same  man  when  he 
was  in  Asia  as  quaestor;  and  that  in  the  census  before  that, 
when  Julius  and  Crassus  were  censors,  no  regular  account  of 
the  people  was  taken.  But,  since  the  census  does  not  confirm 
the  right  of  citizenship,  but  only  indicates  that  he,  who  is  re- 
turned in  the  census,  did  at  that  time  claim  to  be  considered  as 
a  citizen,  I  say  that,  at  that  time,  when  you  say,  in  your  speech 
for  the  prosecution,  that  he  did  not  even  himself  consider  that 
he  had  any  claim  to  the  privileges  of  a  Roman  citizen,  he  more 
than  once  made  a  will  according  to  our  laws,  and  he  entered 
upon  inheritances  left  him  by  Roman  citizens ;  and  he  was  made 
honorable  mention  of  by  Lucius  Lucullus,  both  as  praetor  and 
as  consul,  in  the  archives  kept  in  the  treasury. 

You  must  rely  wholly  on  what  arguments  you  can  find.  For 
he  will  never  be  convicted  either  by  his  own  opinion  of  his  case, 
or  by  that  which  is  formed  of  it  by  his  friends. 


160  CICERO 

You  ask  us,  O  Gratius,  why  we  are  so  exceedingly  attached 
to  this  man.  Because  he  supplies  us  with  food  whereby  our 
mind  is  refreshed  after  this  noise  in  the  forum,  and  with  rest 
for  our  ears  after  they  have  been  wearied  with  bad  language. 
Do  you  think  it  possible  that  we  could  find  a  supply  for  our 
daily  speeches,  when  discussing  such  a  variety  of  matters,  un- 
less we  were  to  cultivate  our  minds  by  the  study  of  literature ; 
or  that  our  minds  could  bear  being  kept  so  constantly  on  the 
stretch  if  we  did  not  relax  them  by  that  same  study?  But  I 
confess  that  I  am  devoted  to  those  studies;  let  others  be 
ashamed  of  them  if  they  have  buried  themselves  in  books  with- 
out being  able  to  produce  anything  out  of  them  for  the  common 
advantage,  or  anything  which  may  bear  the  eyes  of  men  and 
the  light.  But  why  need  I  be  ashamed,  who  for  many  years 
have  lived  in  such  a  manner  as  never  to  allow  my  own  love  of 
tranquillity  to  deny  me  to  the  necessity  or  advantage  of  another, 
or  my  fondness  for  pleasure  to  distract,  or  even  sleep  to  delay 
my  attention  to  such  claims?  Who,  then,  can  reproach  me, 
or  who  has  any  right  to  be  angry  with  me,  if  I  allow  myself  as 
much  time  for  the  cultivation  of  these  studies  as  some  take  for 
the  performance  of  their  own  business,  or  for  celebrating  days 
of  festival  and  games,  or  for  other  pleasures,  or  even  for  the  rest 
and  refreshment  of  mind  and  body,  or  as  others  devote  to  early 
banquets,  to  playing  at  dice,  or  at  ball  ?  And  this  ought  to  be 
permitted  to  me,  because  by  these  studies  my  power  of  speak- 
ing and  those  faculties  are  improved,  which,  as  far  as  they  do 
exist  in  me,  have  never  been  denied  to  my  friends  when  they 
have  been  in  peril.  And  if  that  ability  appears  to  anyone  to  be 
but  moderate,  at  all  events  I  know  whence  I  derive  those  princi- 
ples which  are  of  the  greatest  value.  For  if  I  had  not  persuaded 
myself  from  my  youth  upward,  both  by  the  precepts  of  many 
masters  and  by  much  reading,  that  there  is  nothing  in  life 
greatly  to  be  desired,  except  praise  and  honor,  and  that  while 
pursuing  those  things  all  tortures  of  the  body,  all  dangers  of 
death  and  banishment  are  to  be  considered  but  of  small  im- 
portance, I  should  never  have  exposed  myself,  in  defence  of 
your  safety,  to  such  numerous  and  arduous  contests,  and  to 
these  daily  attacks  of  profligate  men.  But  all  books  are  full  of 
such  precepts,  and  all  the  sayings  of  philosophers,  and  all  antiq- 
uity is  full  of  precedents  teaching  the  same  lesson ;  but  all  these 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          161 

things  would  lie  buried  in  darkness,  if  the  light  of  literature  and 
learning  were  not  applied  to  them.  How  many  images  of  the 
bravest  men,  carefully  elaborated,  have  both  the  Greek  and 
Latin  writers  bequeathed  to  us,  not  merely  for  us  to  look  at  and 
gaze  upon,  but  also  for  our  imitation !  And  I,  always  keeping 
them  before  my  eyes  as  examples  for  my  own  public  conduct, 
have  endeavored  to  mpdel  my  mind  and  views  by  continually 
thinking  of  those  excellent  men. 

Someone  will  ask,  "  What?  were  those  identical  great  men, 
whose  virtues  have  been  recorded  in  books,  accomplished  in  all 
that  learning  which  you  are  extolling  so  highly  ?  "  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  assert  this  of  all  of  them ;  but  still  I  know  what  answer 
I  can  make  to  that  question :  I  admit  that  many  men  have  ex- 
isted of  admirable  disposition  and  virtue,  who,  without  learning, 
by  the  almost  divine  instinct  of  their  own  mere  nature,  have 
been,  of  their  own  accord,  as  it  were,  moderate  and  wise  men. 
I  even  add  this,  that  very  often  nature  without  learning  has  had 
more  to  do  with  leading  men  to  credit  and  to  virtue,  than  learn- 
ing when  not  assisted  by  a  good  natural  disposition.  And  I 
also  contend,  that  when  to  an  excellent  and  admirable  natural 
disposition  there  is  added  a  certain  system  and  training  of  edu- 
cation, then  from  that  combination  arises  an  extraordinary  per- 
fection of  character ;  such  as  is  seen  in  that  godlike  man,  whom 
our  fathers  saw  in  their  time,  Africanus ;  and  in  Caius  Laelius 
and  Lucius  Furius,  most  virtuous  and  moderate  men ;  and  in 
that  most  excellent  man,  the  most  learned  man  of  his  time, 
Marcus  Cato  the  elder ;  and  all  these  men,  if  they  had  been  to 
derive  no  assistance  from  literature  in  the  cultivation  and  prac- 
tice of  virtue,  would  never  have  applied  themselves  to  the  study 
of  it.  Though,  even  if  there  were  no  such  great  advantage  to 
be  reaped  from  it,  and  if  it  were  only  pleasure  that  is  sought 
from  these  studies,  still  I  imagine  you  would  consider  it  a  most 
reasonable  and  liberal  employment  of  the  mind ;  for  other  occu- 
pations are  not  suited  to  every  time,  nor  to  every  age  or  place ; 
but  these  studies  are  the  food  of  youth,  the  delight  of  old  age ; 
the  ornament  of  prosperity,  the  refuge  and  comfort  of  adver- 
sity ;  a  delight  at  home,  and  no  hinderance  abroad ;  they  are 
companions  by  night,  and  in  travel,  and  in  the  country. 

And  if  we  ourselves  were  not  able  to  arrive  at -these  advan- 
tages, nor  even  taste  them  with  our  senses,  still  we  ought  to 
ii 


162  CICERO 

admire  them,  even  when  we  saw  them  in  others.  Who  of  us 
was  of  so  ignorant  and  brutal  a  disposition  as  not  lately  to  be 
grieved  at  the  death  of  Roscius?  who,  though  he  was  an  old 
man  when  he  died,  yet,  on  account  of  the  excellence  and  beauty 
of  his  art,  appeared  to  be  one  who  on  every  account  ought  not 
to  have  died.  Therefore,  had  he  by  the  gestures  of  his  body 
gained  so  much  of  our  affections,  and. shall  we  disregard  the 
incredible  movements  of  the  mind,  and  the  rapid  operations  of 
genius?  How  often  have  I  seen  this  man  Archias,  O  judges 
(for  I  will  take  advantage  of  your  kindness,  since  you  listen  to 
me  so  attentively  while  speaking  in  this  unusual  manner) — 
how  often  have  I  seen  him,  when  he  had  not  written  a  single 
word,  repeat  extempore  a  great  number  of  admirable  verses 
on  the  very  events  which  were  passing  at  the  moment !  How 
often  have  I  seen  him  go  back,  and  describe  the  same  thing 
over  again  with  an  entire  change  of  language  and  ideas !  And 
what  he  wrote  with  care  and  with  much  thought,  that  I  have 
seen  admired  to  such  a  degree,  as  to  equal  the  credit  of  even  the 
writings  of  the  ancients.  Should  not  I,  then,  love  this  man? 
should  I  not  admire  him  ?  should  not  I  think  it  my  duty  to  de- 
fend him  in  every  possible  way?  And,  indeed,  we  have  con- 
stantly heard  from  men  of  the  greatest  eminence  and  learning, 
that  the  study  of  other  sciences  was  made  up  of  learning,  and 
rules,  and  regular  method ;  but  that  a  poet  was  such  by  the  un- 
assisted work  of  nature,  and  was  moved  by  the  vigor  of  his  own 
mind,  and  was  inspired,  as  it  were,  by  some  oivine  wrath. 
Wherefore  rightly  does  our  own  great  Ennius  call  poets  holy ; 
because  they  seem  to  be  recommended  to  us  by  some  especial 
gift,  as  it  were,  and  liberality  of  the  gods.  Let,  then,  judges, 
this  name  of  poet,  this  name  which  no  barbarians  even  have 
ever  disregarded,  be  holy  in  your  eyes,  men  of  cultivated  minds 
as  you  all  are.  Rocks  and  deserts  reply  to  the  poet's  voice; 
savage  beasts  are  often  moved  and  arrested  by  song ;  and  shall 
we,  who  have  been  trained  in  the  pursuit  of  the  most  virtuous 
acts,  refuse  to  be  swayed  by  the  voice  of  poets  ?  The  Colopho- 
nians  say  that  Homer  was  their  citizen ;  the  Chians  claim  him 
as  theirs ;  the  Salaminians  assert  their  right  to  him ;  but  the  men 
of  Smyrna  loudly  assert  him  to  be  a  citizen  of  Smyrna,  and  they 
have  even  raised  a  temple  to  him  in  their  city.  Many  other 
places  also  fight  with  one  another  for  the  honor  of  being  his 
birth-place. 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          163 

They,  then,  claim  a  stranger,  even  after  his  death,  because  he 
was  a  poet ;  shall  we  reject  this  man  while  he  is  alive,  a  man 
who  by  his  own  inclination  and  by  our  laws  does  actually  be- 
long to  us  ?  especially  when  Archias  has  employed  all  his  genius 
with  the  utmost  zeal  in  celebrating  the  glory  and  renown  of  the 
Roman  people  ?  For  when  a  young  man,  he  touched  on  our 
wars  against  the  Cimbri,  and  gained  the  favor  even  of  Caius 
Marius  himself,  a  man  who  was  tolerably  proof  against  this  sort 
of  study.  For  there  was  no  one  else  so  disinclined  to  the  muses 
as  not  willingly  to  endure  that  the  praise  of  his  labors  should  be 
made  immortal  by  means  of  verse.  They  say  that  the  great 
Themistocles,  the  greatest  man  that  Athens  produced,  said, 
when  someone  asked  him  what  sound  or  whose  voice  he  took 
the  greatest  delight  in  hearing,  "  The  voice  of  that  by  whom  his 
own  exploits  were  best  celebrated."  Therefore,  the  great  Ma- 
rius was  also  exceedingly  attached  to  Lucius  Plotius,  because 
he  thought  that  the  achievement  which  he  had  performed  could 
be  celebrated  by  his  genius.  And  the  whole  Mithridatic  War, 
great  and  difficult  as  it  was,  and  carried  on  with  so  much  diver- 
sity of  fortune  by  land  and  sea,  has  been  related  at  length  by 
him;  and  the  books  in  which  that  is  sung  of,  not  only  make 
illustrious  Lucius  Lucullus,  that  most  gallant  and  celebrated 
man,  but  they  do  honor  also  to  the  Roman  people.  For,  while 
Lucullus  was  general,  the  Roman  people  opened  Pontus, 
though  it  was  defended  both  by  the  resources  of  the  king  and 
by  the  character  of  the  country  itself.  Under  the  same  general 
the  army  of  the  Roman  people,  with  no  very  great  numbers, 
routed  the  countless  hosts  of  the  Armenians.  It  is  the  glory  of 
the  Roman  people  that,  by  the  wisdom  of  that  same  general, 
the  city  of  the  Cyzicenes,  most  friendly  to  us,  was  delivered  and 
preserved  from  all  the  attacks  of  the  kind,  and  from  the  very 
jaws,  as  it  were,  of  the  whole  war.  Ours  is  the  glory  which  will 
be  forever  celebrated,  which  is  derived  from  the  fleet  of  the 
enemy  which  was  sunk  after  its  admirals  had  been  slain,  and 
from  the  marvellous  naval  battle  off  Tenedos ;  those  trophies 
belong  to  us,  those  monuments  are  ours,  those  triumphs  are 
ours.  Therefore  I  say  that  the  men  by  whose  genius  these  ex- 
ploits are  celebrated  make  illustrious  at  the  same  time  the  glory 
of  the  Roman  people.  Our  countryman,  Ennius,  was  dear  to 
the  elder  Africanus ;  and  even  on  the  tomb  of  the  Scipios  his 


164  CICERO 

effigy  is  believed  to  be  visible,  carved  in  the  marble.  But  un- 
doubtedly it  is  not  only  the  men  who  are  themselves  praised 
who  are  done  honor  to  by  those  praises,  but  the  name  of  the 
Roman  people  also  is  adorned  by  them.  Cato,  the  ancestor 
of  this  Cato,  is  extolled  to  the  skies.  Great  honor  is  paid  to  the 
exploits  of  the  Roman  people.  Lastly,  all  those  great  men,  the 
Maximi,  the  Marcelli,  and  the  Fulvii,  are  done  honor  to,  not 
without  all  of  us  having  also  a  share  in  the  panegyric. 

Therefore  our  ancestors  received  the  man  who  was  the  cause 
of  all  this,  a  man  of  Rudiae,  into  their  city  as  a  citizen  ;  and  shall 
we  reject  from  our  city  a  man  of  Heraclea,  a  man  sought  by 
many  cities,  and  made  a  citizen  of  ours  by  these  very  laws? 

For  if  anyone  thinks  that  there  is  a  smaller  gain  of  glory  de- 
rived from  Greek  verses  than  from  Latin  ones,  he  is  greatly 
mistaken,  because  Greek  poetry  is  read  among  all  nations,  Latin 
is  confined  to  its  own  natural  limits,  which  are  narrow  enough. 
Wherefore,  if  those  achievements  which  we  have  performed  are 
limited  only  by  the  bounds  of  the  whole  world,  we  ought  to  de- 
sire that,  wherever  our  vigor  and  our  arms  have  penetrated,  our 
glory  and  our  fame  should  likewise  extend.  Because,  as  this  is 
always  an  ample  reward  for  those  people  whose  achievements 
are  the  subject  of  writings,  so  especially  is  it  the  greatest  induce- 
ment to  encounter  labors  and  dangers  to  all  men  who  fight  for 
themselves  for  the  sake  of  glory.  How  many  historians  of  his 
exploits  is  Alexander  the  Great  said  to  have  had  with  him;  and 
he,  when  standing  on  Cape  Sigeum  at  the  grave  of  Achilles,  said, 
"  O  happy  youth,  to  find  Homer  as  the  panegyrist  of  your 
glory!  "  And  he  said  the  truth;  for,  if  the  Iliad  had  not  existed 
the  same  tomb  which  covered  his  body  would  have  also  buried 
his  renown.  What,  did  not  our  own  Magnus,  whose  valor  has 
been  equal  to  his  fortune,  present  Theophanes  the  Mitylenaean,  a 
relater  of  his  actions,  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in  an  assembly 
of  the  soldiers?  And  those  brave  men,  our  countrymen,  soldiers 
and  country-bred  men  as  they  were,  still  being  moved  by  the 
sweetness  of  glory,  as  if  they  were  to  some  extent  partakers  of 
the  same  renown,  showed  their  approbation  of  that  action  with  a 
great  shout.  Therefore,  I  supose  if  Archias  were  not  a  Roman 
citizen  according  to  the  laws,  he  could  not  have  contrived  to  get 
presented  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  by  some  general !  Sylla, 
when  he  was  giving  it  to  the  Spaniards  and  Gauls,  would,  I  sup- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          165 

pose,  have  refused  him  if  he  had  asked  for  it!  a  man  whom  we 
ourselves  saw  in  the  public  assembly,  when  a  bad  poet  of  the 
common  people  had  put  a  book  in  his  hand,  because  he  had 
made  an  epigram  on  him  with  every  other  verse  too  long,  imme- 
diately ordered  some  of  the  things  which  he  was  selling  at  the 
moment  to  be  given  him  as  a  reward,  on  condition  of  not  writing 
anything  more  about  him  for  the  future.  Would  not  he  who 
thought  the  industry  of  a  bad  poet  still  worthy  of  some  reward, 
have  sought  out  the  genius,  and  excellence,  and  copiousness  in 
writing  of  this  man?  What  more  need  I  say?  Could  he  not 
have  obtained  the  freedom  of  the  city  from  Quintus  Metellus 
Pius,  his  own  most  intimate  friend,  who  gave  it  to  many  men, 
either  by  his  own  request,  or  by  the  intervention  of  the  Luculli? 
especially  when  Metellus  was  so  anxious  to  have  his  own  deeds 
celebrated  in  writing,  that  he  gave  his  attention  willingly  to 
poets  born  even  at  Cordova,  whose  poetry  had  a  very  heavy  and 
foreign  flavor. 

For  this  should  not  be  concealed,  which  cannot  possibly  be 
kept  in  the  dark,  but  it  might  be  avowed  openly:  we  are  all  in- 
fluenced by  a  desire  of  praise,  and  the  best  men  are  the  most 
especially  attracted  by  glory.  Those  very  philosophers  even  in 
the  books  which  they  write  about  despising  glory,  put  their  own 
names  on  the  title-page.  In  the  very  act  of  recording  their  con- 
tempt for  renown  and  notoriety,  they  desire  to  have  their  own 
names  known  and  talked  of.  Decimus  Brutus,  that  most  excel- 
lent citizen  and  consummate  general,  adorned  the  approaches  to 
his  temples  and  monuments  with  the  verses  of  Attius.  And 
lately  that  great  man  Fulvius,  who  fought  with  the  yEtolians, 
having  Ennius  for  his  companion,  did  not  hesitate  to  devote 
the  spoils  of  Mars  to  the  muses.  Wherefore,  in  a  city  in  which 
generals,  almost  in  arms,  have  paid  respect  to  the  name  of  poets 
and  to  the  temples  of  the  muses,  these  judges  in  the  garb  of 
peace  ought  not  to  act  in  a  manner  inconsistent  with  the  honor 
of  the  muses  and  the  safety  of  poets. 

And  that  you  may  do  that  the  more  willingly,  I  will  now  re- 
veal my  own  feelings  to  you,  O  judges,  and  I  will  make  a  con- 
fession to  you  of  my  own  love  of  glory — too  eager  perhaps,  but 
still  honorable.  For  this  man  has  in  his  verses  touched  upon  and 
begun  the  celebration  of  the  deeds  which  we  in  our  consulship 
did  in  union  with  you,  for  the  safety  of  this  city  and  empire,  and 


166  CICERO 

in  defence  of  the  life  of  the  citizens  and  of  the  whole  republic. 
And  when  I  had  heard  his  commencement,  because  it  appeared 
to  me  to  be  a  great  subject  and  at  the  same  time  an  agreeable  one. 
I  encouraged  him  to  complete  his  work.  For  virtue  seeks  no 
other  reward  for  its  labors  and  its  dangers  beyond  that  of  praise 
and  renown;  and  if  that  be  denied  to  it,  what  reason  is  there,  O 
judges,  why  in  so  small  and  brief  a  course  of  life  as  is  allotted  to 
us,  we  should  impose  such  labors  on  ourselves?  Certainly,  if 
the  mind  had  no  anticipations  of  posterity,  and  if  it  were  to  con- 
fine all  its  thoughts  within  the  same  limits  as  those  by  which  the 
space  of  our  lives  is  bounded,  it  would  neither  break  itself  with 
such  severe  labors,  nor  would  it  be  tormented  with  such  cares 
and  sleepless  anxiety,  nor  would  it  so  often  have  to  fight  for  its 
very  life.  At  present  there  is  a  certain  virtue  in  every  good  man, 
which  night  and  day  stirs  up  the  mind  with  the  stimulus  of 
glory,  and  reminds  it  that  all  mention  of  our  name  will  not  cease 
at  the  same  time  with  our  lives,  but  that  our  fame  will  endure 
to  all  posterity. 

Do  we  all  who  are  occupied  in  the  affairs  of  the  state,  and  who 
are  surrounded  by  such  perils  and  dangers  in  life,  appear  to  be 
so  narrow-minded,  as,  though  to  the  last  moment  of  our  lives  we 
have  never  passed  one  tranquil  or  easy  moment,  to  think  that 
everything  will  perish  at  the  same  time  as  ourselves?  Ought  we 
not,  when  many  most  illustrious  men  have  with  great  care  col- 
lected and  left  behind  them  statues  and  images,  representations 
not  of  their *minds  but  of  their  bodies,  much  more  to  desire  to 
leave  behind  us  a  copy  of  our  counsels  and  of  our  virtues, 
wrought  and  elaborated  by  the  greatest  genius?  I  thought,  at 
the  very  moment  of  performing  them,  that  I  was  scattering  and 
disseminating  all  the  deeds  which  I  was  performing,  all  over  the 
world  for  the  eternal  recollection  of  nations.  And  whether  that 
delight  is  to  be  denied  to  my  soul  after  death,  or  whether,  as  the 
wisest  men  have  thought,  it  \vill  affect  some  portion  of  my  spirit, 
at  all  events,  I  am  at  present  delighted  with  some  such  idea  and 
hope. 

Preserve,  then,  O  judges,  a  man  of  such  virtue  as  that  of 
Archias,  which  you  see  testified  to  you  not  only  by  the  worth  of 
his  friends,  but  by  the  length  of  time  during  which  they  have 
been  such  to  him ;  and  of  such  genius  as  you  ought  to  think  is 
his,  when  you  see  that  it  has  been  sought  by  most  illustrious 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  AULUS  LICINIUS  ARCHIAS          167 

men.  And  his  cause  is  one  which  is  approved  of  by  the  benevo- 
lence of  the  law,  by  the  authority  of  his  municipality,  by  the  tes- 
timony of  Lucullus,  and  by  the  documentary  evidence  of  Metel- 
lus.  And  as  this  is  the  case,  we  do  entreat  you,  O  judges,  if 
there  may  be  any  weight  attached,  I  will  not  say  to  human,  but 
even  to  divine  recommendation  in  such  important  matters,  to 
receive  under  your  protection  that  man  who  has  at  all  times  done 
honor  to  your  generals  and  to  the  exploits  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple— who  even  in  these  recent  perils  of  our  own,  and  in  your 
domestic  dangers,  promises  to  give  an  eternal  testimony  of 
praise  in  our  favor,  and  who  forms  one  of  that  band  of  poets  who 
have  at  all  times  and  in  all  nations  been  considered  and  called 
holy,  so  that  he  may  seem  relieved  by  your  humanity,  rather 
than  overwhelmed  by  your  severity. 

The  things  which,  according  to  my  custom,  I  have  said  briefly 
and  simply,  O  judges,  I  trust  have  been  approved  by  all  of  you. 
Those  things  which  I  have  spoken,  without  regarding  the  habits 
of  the  forum  or  judicial  usage,  both  concerning  the  genius  of  the 
man  and  my  own  zeal  in  his  behalf,  I  trust  have  been  received  by 
you  in  good  part.  That  they  have  been  so  by  him  who  presides 
at  this  trial,  I  am  quite  certain. 


SPEECH    IN    DEFENCE    OF    THE 
PROPOSED    MANILIAN    LAW 


THE  ARGUMENT 

In  the  year  B.C.  67,  Aulus  Gabinius  had  obtained  the  passing  of  a 
decree  by  which  Pompey  was  invested  for  three  years  with  the  supreme 
command  over  all  the  Mediterranean,  and  over  all  the  coasts  of  that 
sea,  to  a  distance  of  four  hundred  furlongs  from  the  sea.  And  in  this 
command  he  had  acted  with  great  vigor  and  with  complete  success; 
destroying  all  the  pirates'  strongholds,  and  distributing  the  men  them- 
selves as  colonists  among  the  inland  towns  of  Asia  Minor  and  Greece. 
After  this  achievement  he  did  not  return  to  Rome,  but  remained  in 
Asia,  making  various  regulations  for  the  towns  which  he  had  con- 
quered. 

During  this  period  Lucullus  had  been  prosecuting  the  war  against 
Mithridates,  and  proceeding  gradually  in  the  reduction  of  Pontus; 
he  had  penetrated  also  into  Mesopotamia,  but  had  subsequently  been 
distressed  by  seditions  in  his  army,  excited  by  Clodius,  his  brother- 
in-law;  and  these  seditions  had  given  fresh  courage  to  Mithridates, 
who  had  fallen  on  Caius  Triarius,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  and  routed 
his  army  with  great  slaughter.  At  the  time  that  Pompey  commenced 
his  campaign  against  the  pirates,  the  consul  Marcus  Aquillius  Glabrio 
was  sent  to  supersede  Lucullus  in  his  command;  but  he  was  per- 
fectly incompetent  to  oppose  Mithridates,  who  seemed  likely  with 
such  an  enemy  to  recover  all  the  power  of  which  Lucullus  had  deprived 
him.  So  in  the  year  B.C.  66,  while  Glabrio  was  still  in  Bithynia,  and 
Pompey  in  Asia  Minor,  Caius  Manilius,  a  tribune  of  the  people, 
brought  forward  a  proposition,  that,  in  addition  to  the  command  which 
Pompey  already  possessed,  he  should  be  invested  with  unlimited  power 
in  Bithynia,  Pontus,  and  Armenia,  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  the 
war  against  Mithridates.  The  measure  was  strongly  opposed  by  Ca- 
tulus  and  by  Hortensius,  but  it  was  supported  by  Caesar,  and  by  Cicero ; 
and  the  proposition  was  carried. 


170 


SPEECH    IN    DEFENCE    OF   THE   PROPOSED 
MANILIAN   LAW 

ALTHOUGH,  O  Romans,  your  numerous  assembly  has 
always  seemed  to  me  the  most  agreeable  body  that  any- 
one can  address,  and  this  place,  which  is  most  honorable 
to  plead  in,  has  also  seemed  always  the  most  distinguished  place 
for  delivering  an  oration  in,  still  I  have  been  prevented  from 
trying  this  road  to  glory,  which  has  at  all  times  been  entirely 
open  to  every  virtuous  man,  not  indeed  by  my  own  will,  but  by 
the  system  of  life  which  I  have  adopted  from  my  earliest  years. 
For  as  hitherto  I  have  not  dared,  on  account  of  my  youth,  to 
intrude  upon  the  authority  of  this  place,  and  as  I  considered  that 
no  arguments  ought  to  be  brought  to  tliis  place  except  such  as 
were  the  fruit  of  great  ability,  and  worked  up  with  the  greatest 
industry,  I  have  thought  it  fit  to  devote  all  my  time  to  the  neces- 
sities of  my  friends.  And  accordingly,  this  place  has  never  been 
unoccupied  by  men  who  were  defending  your  cause,  and  my  in- 
dustry, which  has  been  virtuously  and  honestly  employed  about 
the  dangers  of  private  individuals,  has  received  its  most  honor- 
able reward  in  your  approbation.  For  when,  on  account  of  the 
adjournment  of  the  comitia,  I  was  three  times  elected  the  first 
praetor  by  all  the  centuries,  I  easily  perceived,  O  Romans,  what 
your  opinion  of  me  was,  and  what  conduct  you  enjoined  to 
others.  Now,  when  there  is  that  authority  in  me  which  you,  by 
conferring  honors  on  me,  have  chosen  that  there  should  be,  and 
all  that  facility  in  pleading  which  almost  daily  practice  in  speak- 
ing can  give  a  vigilant  man  who  has  habituated  himself  to  the 
forum,  at  all  events,  if  I  have  any  authority,  I  will  employ  it 
before  those  who  have  given  it  to  me;  and  if  I  can  accomplish 
anything  by  speaking,  I  will  display  it  to  those  men  above  all 
others,  who  have  thought  fit,  by  their  decision,  to  confer  honors 
on  that  qualification.  And,  above  other  things,  I  see  that  I  have 

171 


1 72  CICERO 

reason  to  rejoice  on  this  account,  that,  since  I  am  speaking  in 
this  place,  to  which  I  am  so  entirely  unaccustomed,  I  have  a 
cause  to  advocate  in  which  eloquence  can  hardly  fail  anyone; 
for  I  have  to  speak  of  the  eminent  and  extraordinary  virtue  of 
Cnaeus  Pompey ;  and  it  is  harder  for  me  to  find  out  how  to  end 
a  discourse  on  such  a  subject,  than  how  to  begin  one.  So  that 
what  I  have  to  seek  for  is  not  so  much  a  variety  of  arguments,  as 
moderation  is  employing  them. 

And,  that  my  oration  may  take  its  origin  from  the  same  source 
from  which  all  this  cause  is  to  be  maintained;  an  important  war, 
and  one  perilous  to  your  revenues  and  to  your  allies,  is  being 
waged  against  you  by  two  most  powerful  kings,  Mithridates 
and  Tigranes.  One  of  these  having  been  left  to  himself,  and 
the  other  having  been  attacked,  thinks  that  an  opportunity 
offers  itself  to  him  to  occupy  all  Asia.  Letters  are  brought  from 
Asia  every  day  to  Roman  knights,  most  honorable  men,  who 
have  great  property  at  stake,  which  is  all  employed  in  the  collec- 
tion of  your  revenues ;  and  they,  in  consequence  of  the  intimate 
connection  which  I  have  with  their  order,  have  come  to  me  and 
intrusted  me  with  the  task  of  pleading  the  cause  of  the  republic, 
and  warding  off  danger  from  their  private  fortunes.  They  say 
that  many  of  the  villages  of  Bithynia,  which  is  at  present  a  prov- 
ince belonging  to  you,  have  been  burnt;  that  the  kingdom  of 
Ariobarzanes,  which  borders  oh  those  districts  from  which  you 
derive  a  revenue,  is  wholly  in  the  power  of  the  enemy;  that 
Lucullus,  after  having  performed  great  exploits,  is  departing 
from  that  war;  that  it  is  not  enough  that  whoever  succeeds  him 
should  be  prepared  for  the  conduct  of  so  important  a  war;  that 
one  general  is  demanded  and  required  by  all  men,  both  allies  and 
citizens,  for  that  war;  that  he  alone  is  feared  by  the  enemy,  and 
that  no  one  else  is. 

You  see  what  the  case  is;  now  consider  what  you  ought  to  do. 
It  seems  to  me  that  I  ought  to  speak  in  the  first  place  of  the  sort 
of  war  that  exists;  in  the  second  place,  of  its  importance;  and 
lastly,  of  the  selection  of  a  general.  The  kind  of  war  is  such  as 
ought  above  all  others  to  excite  and  inflame  your  minds  to  a 
determination  to  persevere  in  it.  It  is  a  war  in  which  the  glory 
of  the  Roman  people  is  at  stake;  that  glory  which  has  been 
handed  down  to  you  from  your  ancestors,  great  indeed  in  every- 
thing, but  most  especially  in  military  affairs.  The  safety  of  our 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN  LAW     173 

friends  and  allies  is  at  stake,  in  behalf  of  which  your  ancestors 
have  waged  many  most  important  wars.  The  most  certain  and 
the  largest  revenues  of  the  Roman  people  are  at  stake;  and  if 
they  be  lost,  you  will  be  at  a  loss  for  the  luxuries  of  peace,  and 
the  sinews  of  war.  The  property  of  many  citizens  is  at  stake, 
which  you  ought  greatly  to  regard,  both  for  your  own  sake,  and 
for  that  of  the  republic. 

And  since  you  have  at  all  times  been  covetous  of  glory  and 
greedy  of  praise  beyond  all  other  nations,  you  have  to  wipe  out 
that  stain,  received  in  the  former  Mithridatic  War,  which  has 
now  fixed  itself  deeply  and  eaten  its  way  into  the  Roman  name, 
the  stain  arising  from  the  fact  that  he,  who  in  one  day  marked 
down  by  one  order,  and  one  single  letter,  all  the  Roman  citizens 
in  all  Asia,  scattered  as  they  were  over  so  many  cities,  for 
slaughter  and  butchery,  has  not  only  never  yet  suffered  any 
chastisement  worthy  of  his  wickedness,  but,  now,  twenty-three 
years  after  that  time,  is  still  a  king,  and  a  king  in  such  a  way  that 
he  is  not  content  to  hide  himself  in  Pontus,  or  in  the  recesses  of 
Cappadocia,  but  he  seeks  to  emerge  from  his  hereditary  king- 
dom, and  to  range  among  your  revenues,  in  the  broad  light  of 
Asia.  Indeed  up  to  this  time  your  generals  have  been  contend- 
ing with  the  king  so  as  to  carry  off  tokens  of  victory  rather  than 
actual  victory.  Lucius  Sylla  has  triumphed,  Lucius  Murena 
has  triumphed  over  Mithridates,  two  most  gallant  men,  and 
most  consummate  generals;  but  yet  they  have  triumphed  in 
such  a  way  that  he,  though  routed  and  defeated,  was  still  king. 
Not  but  what  praise  is  to  be  given  to  those  generals  for  what 
they  did.  Pardon  must  be  conceded  to  them  for  what  they  left 
undone;  because  the  republic  recalled  Sylla  from  that  war  into 
Italy,  and  Sylla  recalled  Murena. 

But  Mithridates  employed  all  the  time  which  he  had  left  to 
him,  not  in  forgetting  the  old  war,  but  in  preparing  for  a  new 
one ;  and,  after  he  had  built  and  equipped  very  large  fleets,  and 
had  got  together  mighty  armies  from  every  nation  he  could,  and 
had  pretended  to  be  preparing  war  against  the  tribes  of  the 
Bosphorus,  his  neighbors,  sent  ambassadors  and  letters  as  far  as 
Spain  to  those  chiefs  with  whom  we  were  at  war  at  the  time,  in 
order  that,  as  you  would  by  that  means  have  war  waged  against 
you  in  the  two  parts  of  the  world  the  farthest  separated  and  most 
remote  of  all  from  one  another,  by  two  separate  enemies  warring 


1 74  CICERO 

against  you  with  one  uniform  plan,  you,  hampered  by  the  double 
enmity,  might  find  that  you  were  fighting  for  the  empire  itself. 
However,  the  danger  on  one  side,  the  danger  from  Sertorius  and 
from  Spain,  which  had  much  the  most  solid  foundation  and  the 
most  formidable  strength,  was  warded  off  by  the  divine  wisdom 
and  extraordinary  valor  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  And  on  the  other 
side  of  the  empire,  affairs  were  so  managed  by  Lucius  Lucullus, 
that  most  illustrious  of  men,  that  the  beginning  of  all  those 
achievements  in  those  countries,  great  and  eminent  as  they 
were,  deserve  to  be  attributed  not  to  his  good  fortune  but  to  his 
valor ;  but  the  latter  events  which  have  taken  place  lately,  ought 
to  be  imputed  not  to  his  fault,  but  to  his  ill-fortune.  However, 
of  Lucullus  I  will  speak  hereafter,  and  I  will  speak,  O  Romans, 
in  such  a  manner,  that  his  true  glory  shall  not  appear  to  be  at  all 
disparaged  by  my  pleading,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  shall  any 
undeserved  credit  seem  to  be  given  to  him.  At  present,  when 
we  are  speaking  of  the  dignity  and  glory  of  your  empire,  since 
that  is  the  beginning  of  my  oration,  consider  what  feelings  you 
think  you  ought  to  entertain. 

Your  ancestors  have  often  waged  war  on  account  of  their 
merchants  and  seafaring  men  having  been  injuriously  treated. 
What  ought  to  be  your  feelings  when  so  many  thousand  Roman 
citizens  have  been  put  to  death  by  one  order  and  at  one  time  ? 
Because  their  ambassadors  had  been  spoken  to  with  insolence, 
your  ancestors  determined  that  Corinth,  the  light  of  all  Greece, 
should  be  destroyed.  Will  you  allow  that  king  to  remain  un- 
punished, who  has  murdered  a  lieutenant  of  the  Roman  people 
of  consular  rank,  having  tortured  him  with  chains  and  scourg- 
ing, and  every  sort  of  punishment?  They  would  not  allow  the 
freedom  of  Roman  citizens  to  be  diminished;  will  you  be  indif- 
ferent to  their  lives  being  taken?  They  avenged  the  privileges 
of  our  embassy  when  they  were  violated  by  a  word;  vyill  you 
abandon  an  ambassador  who  has  been  put  to  death  with  every 
sort  of  cruelty?  Take  care  lest,  as  it  was  a  most  glorious  thing 
for  them,  to  leave  you  such  wide  renown  and  such  a  powerful 
empire,  it  should  be  a  most  discreditable  thing  for  you,  not  to  be 
able  to  defend  and  preserve  that  which  you  have  received. 
What  more  shall  I  say?  Shall  I  say,  that  the  safety  of  our  allies 
is  involved  in  the  greatest  hazard  and  danger?  King  Ariobar- 
zanes  has  been  driven  from  his  kingdom,  an  ally  and  friend  of 


IN   DEFENCE  OF  THE   PROPOSED   MANILIAN   LAW      175 

the  Roman  people ;  two  kings  are  threatening  all  Asia,  who  are 
not  only  most  hostile  to  you,  but  also  to  your  friends  and  allies. 
And  every  city  throughout  all  Asia,  and  throughout  all  Greece, 
is  compelled  by  the  magnitude  of  the  danger  to  put  its  whole 
trust  in  the  expectation  of  your  assistance.  They  do  not  dare 
to  beg  of  you  any  particular  general,  especially  since  you  have 
sent  them  another,  nor  do  they  think  that  they  can  do  this  with- 
out extreme  danger.  They  see  and  feel  this,  the  same  thing 
which  you  too  see  and  feel — that  there  is  one  man  in  whom  all 
qualities  are  in  the  highest  perfection,  and  that  he  is  near  (which 
circumstance  makes  it  seem  harder  to  be  deprived  of  him),  by 
whose  mere  arrival  and  name,  although  it  was  a  maritime  war 
for  which  he  came,  they  are  nevertheless  aware  that  the  attacks 
of  the  enemy  were  retarded  and  repressed.  They  then,  since  they 
cannot  speak  freely,  silently  entreat  you  to  think  them  (as  you 
have  thought  your  allies  in  the  other  provinces)  worthy  of  hav- 
ing their  safety  recommended  to  such  a  man;  and  to  think  them 
worthy  even  more  than  others,  because  we  often  send  men  with 
absolute  authority  into  such  a  province  as  theirs,  of  such  charac- 
ter, that,  even  if  they  protect  them  from  the  enemy,  still  their 
arrival  among  the  cities  of  the  allies  is  not  very  different  from  an 
invasion  of  the  enemy.  They  used  to  hear  of  him  before,  now 
they  see  him  among  them;  a  man  of  such  moderation,  such 
mildness,  such  humanity,  that  those  seem  to  be  the  happiest 
people  among  whom  he  remains  for  the  longest  time. 

Wherefore,  if  on  account  of  their  allies,  though  they  them-_ 
selves  had  not  been  roused  by  any  injuries,  your  ancestors 
waged  war  against  Antiochus,  against  Philip,  against  the  ^to- 
lians,  and  against  the  Carthaginians;  with  how  much  earnest- 
ness ought  you,  when  you  yourselves  have  been  provoked  by  in- 
jurious treatment,  to  defend  the  safety  of  the  allies,  and  at  the 
same  time,  the  dignity  of  your  empire?  especially  when  your 
greatest  revenues  are  at  stake.  For  the  revenues  of  the  other 
provinces,  O  Romans,  are  such  that  we  can  scarcely  derive 
enough  from  them  for  the  protection  of  the  provinces  them- 
selves. But  Asia  is  so  rich  and  so  productive,  that  in  the  fertility 
of  its  soil,  and  in  the  variety  of  its  fruits,  and  in  the  vastness  of  its 
pasture  lands,  and  in  the  multitude  of  all  those  things  which  are 
matters  of  exportation,  it  is  greatly  superior  to  all  other  coun- 
tries. Therefore,  O  Romans,  this  province,  if  you  have  any  re- 


I?6  CICERO 

gard  for  what  tends  to  your  advantage  in  time  of  war,  and  to 
your  dignity  in  time  of  peace,  must  be  defended  by  you,  not  only 
from  all  calamity,  but  from  all  fear  of  calamity.  For  in  other 
matters  when  calamity  comes  on  one,  then  damage  is  sustained; 
but  in  the  case  of  revenues,  not  only  the  arrival  of  evil,  but  the 
bare  dread  of  it,  brings  disaster.  For  when  the  troops  of  the 
enemy  are  not  far  off,  even  though  no  actual  irruption  takes 
place,  still  the  flocks  are  abandoned,  agriculture  is  relinquished, 
the  sailing  of  merchants  is  at  an  end.  And  accordingly,  neither 
from  harbor  dues,  nor  from  tenths,  nor  from  the  tax  on  pasture 
lands,  can  any  revenue  be  maintained.  And  therefore  it  often 
happens  that  the  produce  of  an  entire  year  is  lost  by  one  rumor 
of  danger,  and  by  one  alarm  of  war.  What  do  you  think  ought 
to  be  the  feelings  of  those  who  pay  us  tribute,  or  of  those  who 
get  it  in,  and  exact  it,  when  two  kings  with  very  numerous 
armies  are  all  but  on  the  spot?  when  one  inroad  of  cavalry  may 
in  a  very  short  time  carry  off  the  revenue  of  a  whole  year?  when 
the  publicans  think  that  they  retail  the  large  households  of  slaves 
which  they  have  in  the  salt-works,  in  the  fields,  in  the  harbors, 
and  custom-houses,  at  the  greatest  risk?  Do  you  think  that  you 
can  enjoy  these  advantages  unless  you  preserve  those  men  who 
are  productive  to  you,  free  not  only,  as  I  said  before,  from  calam- 
ity, but  even  from  the  dread  of  calamity? 

And  even  this  must  not  be  neglected  by  you,  which  I  had  pro- 
posed to  myself  as  the  last  thing  to  be  mentioned,  when  I  was  to 
speak  of  the  kind  of  war,  for  it  concerns  the  property  of  many 
Roman  citizens;  whom  you,  as  becomes  your  wisdom,  O 
Romans,  must  regard  with  the  most  careful  solicitude.  The 
publicans,1  most  honorable  and  accomplished  men,  have  taken 
all  their  resources  and  all  their  wealth  into  that  province;  and 
their  property  and  fortunes  ought,  by  themselves,  to  be  an 
object  of  your  special  care.  In  truth,  if  we  have  always  con- 
sidered the  revenues  as  the  sinews  of  the  republic,  certainly  we 
shall  be  right  if  we  call  that  order  of  men  which  collects  them, 
the  prop  and  support  of  all  the  other  orders.  In  the  next  place, 
clever  and  industrious  men,  of  all  the  other  orders  of  the  state, 
are  some  of  them  actually  trading  themselves  in  Asia,  and  you 
ought  to  show  a  regard  for  their  interests  in  their  absence;  and 
others  of  them  have  large  sums  invested  in  that  province.  It 

1  It  has  been  said  before  that  the  publicans    were    taken    almost    exclusively 
from  the  equestrian  order. 


IN    DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN  LAW     177 

will,  therefore,  become  your  humanity  to  protect  a  large  num- 
ber of  those  citizens  from  misfortune;  it  will  become  your  wis- 
dom to  perceive  that  the  misfortune  of  many  citizens  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  misfortune  of  the  republic.  In  truth,  firstly, 
it  is  of  but  little  consequence  for  you  afterward  to  recover  for 
the  publicans  revenues  which  have  been  once  lost;  for  the  same 
men  have  not  afterward  the  same  power  of  contracting  for  them, 
and  others  have  not  the  inclination,  through  fear.  In  the  next 
place,  that  which  the  same  Asia,  and  that  same  Mithridates 
taught  us,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Asiatic  War,  that,  at  all  events, 
we,  having  learnt  by  disaster,  ought  to  keep  in  our  recollection. 
For  we  know  that  then,  when  many  had  lost  large  fortunes  in 
Asia,  all  credit  failed  at  Rome,  from  payments  being  hindered. 
For  it  is  not  possible  for  many  men  to  lose  their  property  and 
fortunes  in  one  city,  without  drawing  many  along  with  them  into 
the  same  vortex  of  disaster.  But  do  you  now  preserve  the 
republic  from  this  misfortune;  and  believe  me  (you  yourselves 
see  that  it  is  the  case),  this  credit,  and  this  state  of  the  money- 
market  which  exists  at  Rome  and  in  the  forum,  is  bound  up  with, 
and  is  inseparable  from,  those  fortunes  which  are  invested  in 
Asia.  Those  fortunes  cannot  fall  without  credit  here  being  un- 
dermined by  the  same  blow,  and  perishing  along  with  them. 
Consider,  then,  whether  you  ought  to  hesitate  to  apply  your- 
selves with  all  zeal  to  that  war,  in  which  the  glory  of  your  name, 
the  safety  of  your  allies,  your  greatest  revenues,  and  the  fortunes 
of  numbers  of  your  citizens,  wil  be  protected  at  the  same  time  as 
the  republic. 

Since  I  have  spoken  of  the  description  of  war,  I  will  now  say 
a  few  words  about  its  magnitude.  For  this  may  be  said  of  it — 
that  it  is  a  kind  of  war  so  necessary,  that  it  must  absolutely  be 
waged,  and  yet  not  one  of  such  magnitude  as  to  be  formidable. 
And  in  this  we  must  take  the  greatest  care  that  those  things  do 
not  appear  to  you  contemptible  which  require  to  be  most  dili- 
gently guarded  against.  And  that  all  men  may  understand  that 
I  give  Lucius  Lucullus  all  the  praise  that  is  due  to  a  gallant  man, 
and  most  wise  2  man,  and  to  a  most  consummate  general,  I  say 

2  The  Latin  is  "  forti  yiro,  et  sapientis-  considered  as  an  intellectual  and  moral 

simo    homini,"    and    this    opposition    of  being — namely,  where  personal  qualities 

vir    and    homo    is    not    uncommon    in  are  to  be  denoted ;  whereas  vir  signifies 

Cicero's    orations.      "  Homo    is    nearly  a   man  in   his  relations  to  the  state." — 

synonymous  with  vir,  but  with  this  dis-  Riddle,  Latin  Dictionary,  v.  Homo, 
tinction,  that  homo  is  used  of  a  man 


12 


178  CICERO 

that  when  he  first  arrived  in  Asia,  the  forces  of  Mithridates  were 
most  numerous,  well  appointed,  and  provided  with  every  requi- 
site; and  that  the  finest  city  in  Asia,  and  the  one,  too,  that  was 
most  friendly  to  us,  the  city  of  Cyzicus,  was  besieged  by  the  king 
in  person,  with  an  enormous  army,  and  that  the  siege  had  been 
pressed  most  vigorously,  when  Lucius  Lucullus,  by  his  valor, 
and  perseverance,  and  wisdom,  relieved  it  from  the  most  ex- 
treme danger.  I  say  that  he  also,  when  general,  defeated  and 
destroyed  that  great  and  well-appointed  fleet,  which  the  chiefs  of 
Sertorius's  party  were  leading  against  Italy  with  furious  zeal ; 
I  say  besides,  that  by  him  numerous  armies  of  the  enemy  were 
destroyed  in  several  battles,  and  that  Pontus  was  opened  to  our 
legions,  which  before  his  time  had  been  closed  against  the 
Roman  people  on  every  side;  and  that  Sinope  and  Amisus, 
towns  in  which  the  king  had  palaces,  adorned  and  furnished 
with  every  kind  of  magnificence,  and  many  other  cities  of  Pontus 
and  Cappadocia,  were  taken  by  his  mere  approach  and  arrival 
near  them ;  that  the  king  himself  was  stripped  of  the  kingdom 
possessed  by  his  father  and  his  grandfather,  and  forced  to  betake 
himself  as  a  suppliant  to  other  kings  and  other  nations;  and 
that  all  these  great  deeds  were  achieved  without  any  injury  to 
the  allies  of  the  Roman  people,  or  any  diminution  of  its  revenues. 
I  think  that  this  is  praise  enough — such  praise  that  you  must 
see,  O  Romans,  that  Lucius  Lucullus  has  not  been  praised  as 
much  from  this  rostrum  by  any  one  of  these  men  who  are  ob- 
jecting to  this  law  and  arguing  against  our  cause. 

Perhaps  now  it  will  be  asked,  how,  when  all  this  has  been 
already  done,  there  can  be  any  great  war  left  behind.  I  will  ex- 
plain this,  O  Romans ;  for  this  does  not  seem  an  unreasonable 
question.  At  first  Mithridates  fled  from  his  kingdom,  as  Medea 
is  formerly  said  to  have  fled  from  the  same  region  of  Pontus; 
for  they  say  that  she,  in  her  flight,  strewed  about  the  limbs  of  her 
brother  in  those  places  along  which  her  father  was  likely  to  pur- 
sue her,  in  order  that  the  collection  of  them,  dispersed  as  they 
were,  and  the  grief  which  would  afflict  his  father,  might  delay  the 
rapidity  of  his  pursuit.  Mithridates,  flying  in  the  same  manner, 
left  in  Pontus  the  whole  of  the  vast  quantity  of  gold  and  silver, 
and  of  beautiful  things  which  he  had  inherited  from  his  ances- 
tors, and  which  he  himself  had  collected  and  brought  into  his 
own  kingdom,  having  obtained  them  by  plunder  in  the  former 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN   LAW     179 

war  from  all  Asia.  While  our  men  were  diligently  occupied  in 
collecting  all  this,  the  king  himself  escaped  out  of  their  hands. 
And  so  grief  retarded  the  father  of  Medea  in  his  pursuit,  but  de- 
light delayed  our  men.  In  this  alarm  and  flight  of  his,  Tigranes, 
the  king  of  Armenia,  received  him,  encouraged  him  while  de- 
spairing of  his  fortunes,  gave  him  new  spirit  in  his  depression, 
and  recruited  with  new  strength  his  powerless  condition.  And 
after  Lucius  Lucullus  arrived  in  his  kingdom,  very  many  tribes 
were  excited  to  hostilities  against  our  general.  For  those  na- 
tions which  the  Roman  people  never  had  thought  either  of  at- 
tacking in  war  or  tampering  with,  had  been  inspired  with  fear. 
There  was,  besides,  a  general  opinion  which  had  taken  deep  root, 
and  had  spread  over  all  the  barbarian  tribes  in  those  districts, 
that  our  army  had  been  led  into  those  countries  with  the  object 
of  plundering  a  very  wealthy  and  most  religiously  worshipped 
temple.  And  so,  many  powerful  nations  were  roused  against  us 
by  a  fresh  dread  and  alarm.  But  our  army,  although  it  had 
taken  a  city  of  Tigranes's  kingdom,  and  had  fought  some  suc- 
cessful battles,  still  was  out  of  spirits  at  its  immense  distance 
from  Rome,  and  its  separation  from  its  friends.  At  present  I 
will  not  say  more;  for  the  result  of  these  feelings  of  theirs  was, 
that  they  were  more  anxious  for  a  speedy  return  home  than  for 
any  farther  advance  into  the  enemies'  country.  But  Mithridates 
had  by  this  time  strengthened  his  army  by  re-enforcements  of 
those  men  belonging  to  his  own  dominions  who  had  assembled 
together,  and  by  large  promiscuous  forces  belonging  to  many 
other  kings  and  tribes.  And  we  see  that  this  is  almost  invari- 
ably the  case,  that  kings  when  in  misfortune  easily  induce  many 
to  pity  and  assist  them,  especially  such  as  are  either  kings  them- 
selves, or  who  live  under  kingly  power,  because  to  them  the 
name  of  king  appears  something  great  and  sacred.  And  ac- 
cordingly he,  when  conquered,  was  able  to  accomplish  what, 
when  he  was  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  powers,  he  never  dared 
even  to  wish  for.  For  when  he  had  returned  to  his  kingdom, 
he  was  not  content  (though  that  had  happened  to  him  beyond  all 
his  hopes)  with  again  setting  his  foot  on  that  land  after  he  had 
been  expelled  from  it;  but  he  even  volunteered  an  attack  on 
your  army,  flushed  as  it  was  with  glory  and  victory.  Allow 
me,  in  this  place,  O  Romans  (just  as  poets  do  who  write  of  Ro- 
man affairs),  to  pass  over  our  disaster,  which  was  so  great  that  it 


i8o  CICERO 

came  to  Lucius  Lucullus's  ears,  not  by  means  of  a  messenger 
depatched  from  the  scene  of  action,  but  through  the  report  of 
common  conversation.  At  the  very  time  of  this  misfortune — of 
this  most  terrible  disaster  in  the  whole  war,  Lucius  Lucullus, 
who  might  have  been  able,  to  a  great  extent,  to  remedy  the 
calamity,  being  compelled  by  your  orders,  because  you  thought, 
according  to  the  old  principle  of  your  ancestors,  that  limits 
ought  to  be  put  to  length  of  command,  discharged  a  part  of  his 
soldiers  who  had  served  their  appointed  time,  and  delivered  over 
part  to  Glabrio.  I  pass  over  many  things  designedly ;  but  you 
yourselves  can  easily  conjecture  how  important  you  ought  to 
consider  that  war  which  most  powerful  kings  are  uniting  in — 
which  disturbed  nations  are  renewing — which  nations,  whose 
strength  is  unimpaired,  are  undertaking,  and  which  a  new  gen- 
eral of  yours  has  to  encounter  after  a  veteran  army  has  been  de- 
feated. 

I  appear  to  have  said  enough  to  make  you  see  why  this  war  is 
in  its  very  nature  unavoidable,  in  its  magnitude  dangerous.  It 
remains  for  me  to  speak  of  the  general  who  ought  to  be  selected 
for  that  war,  and  appointed  to  the  management  of  such  impor- 
tant affairs. 

I  wish,  O  Romans,  that  you  had  such  an  abundance  of  brave 
and  honest  men,  that  it  was  a  difficult  subject  for  your  delibera- 
tions, whom  you  thought  most  desirable  to  be  appointed  to  the 
conduct  of  such  important  affairs,  and  so  vast  a  war.  But  now, 
when  there  is  Cnaeus  Pompeius  alone,  who  has  exceeded  in 
valor,  not  only  the  glory  of  these  men  who  are  now  alive,  but 
even  all  recollections  of  antiquity,  what  is  there  that,  in  this  case, 
can  raise  a  doubt  in  the  mind  of  anyone?  For  I  think  that  these 
four  qualities  are  indispensable  in  a  great  general — knowledge 
of  military  affairs,  valor,  authority  and  good  fortune.  Who, 
then,  ever  was,  or  ought  to  have  been,  better  acquainted  with 
military  affairs  than  this  man?  who,  the  moment  that  he  left 
school  and  finished  his  education  as  a  boy,  at  a  time  when  there 
was  a  most  important  war  going  on,  and  most  active  enemies 
were  banded  against  us,  went  to  his  father's  army  and  to  the 
discipline  of  the  camp ;  who,  when  scarcely  out  of  his  boyhood, 
became  a  soldier  of  a  consummate  general — when  entering  on 
manhood,  became  himself  the  general  of  a  mighty  army;  who 
has  been  more  frequently  engaged  with  the  enemy,  than  anyone 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED   MANILIAN  LAW      181 

else  has  ever  disputed  with  an  adversary;  who  has  himself,  as 
general  conducted  more  wars  than  other  men  have  read  of;  who 
has  subdued  more  provinces  than  other  men  have  wished  for; 
whose  youth  was  trained  to  the  knowledge  of  military  affairs,  not 
by  the  precepts  of  others,  but  by  commanding  himself — not  by 
the  disasters  of  war,  but  by  victories — not  by  campaigns,  but  by 
triumphs.  In  short,  what  description  of  war  can  there  be  in 
which  the  fortune  of  the  republic  has  not  given  him  practice? 
Civil  War,  African  War,  Transalpine  War,  Spanish  War,  pro- 
miscuous war  of  the  most  warlike  cities  and  nations,  servile  war, 
naval  war,  every  variety  and  diversity  of  wars  and  of  enemies,  has 
not  only  been  encountered  by  this  one  man,  but  encountered  vic- 
toriously; and  these  exploits  show  plainly  that  there  is  no  cir- 
cumstance in  military  practice  which  can  elude  the  knowledge  of 
this  man. 

But  now,  what  language  can  be  found  equal  to  the  valor  of 
Cnasus  Pompeius?  What  statement  can  anyone  make  which 
shall  be  either  worthy  of  him,  or  new  to  you,  or  unknown  to  any- 
one? For  those  are  not  the  only  virtues  of  a  general  which  are 
usually  thought  so — namely,  industry  in  business,  fortitude  amid 
dangers,  energy  in  acting,  rapidity  in  executing,  wisdom  in  fore- 
seeing; which  all  exist  in  as  great  perfection  in  that  one  man  as 
in  all  the  other  generals  put  together  whom  we  have  either  seen 
or  heard  of.  Italy  is  my  witness,  which  that  illustrious  con- 
queror himself,  Lucius  Sylla,  confessed  had  been  delivered  by 
this  man's  valor  and  ready  assistance.  Sicily  is  my  witness, 
which  he  released  when  it  was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  many 
dangers,  not  by  the  dread  of  his  power,  but  by  the  promptitude 
of  his  wisdom.  Africa  is  my  witness,  which,  having  been  over- 
whelmed by  numerous  armies  of  enemies,  overflowed  with  the 
blood  of  those  same  enemies.  Gaul  is  my  witness,  through 
which  a  road  into  Spain  was  laid  open  to  our  legions  by  the  de- 
struction of  the  Gauls.  Spain  is  my  witness,  which  has  repeat- 
edly seen  our  many  enemies  there  defeated  and  subdued  by  this 
man.  Again  and  again,  Italy  is  my  witness,  which,  when  it  was 
weighed  down  by  the  disgraceful  and  perilous  servile  war,  en- 
treated aid  from  this  man,  though  he  was  at  a  distance;  and  that 
war,  having  dwindled  down  and  wasted  away  at  the  expectation 
of  Pompeius,  was  destroyed  and  buried  by  his  arrival.  But 
now,  also  every  coast,  all  foreign  nations  and  countries,  all  seas, 


i8a  CICERO 

both  in  their  open  waters  and  in  every  bay,  and  creek,  and  har- 
bor, are  my  witnesses.  For  during  these  last  years,  what  place 
in  any  part  of  the  sea  had  so  strong  a  garrison  as  to  be  safe  from 
him?  what  place  was  so  much  hidden  as  to  escape  his  notice? 
Who  ever  put  to  sea  without  being  aware  that  he  was  commit- 
ting himself  to  the  hazard  of  death  or  slavery,  either  from  storms 
or  from  the  sea  being  crowded  with  pirates?  Who  would  ever 
have  supposed  that  a  war  of  such  extent,  so  mean,  so  old  a  war, 
a  war  so  extensive  in  its  theatre  and  so  widely  scattered,  could 
have  been  terminated  by  all  our  generals  put  together  in  one 
year,  or  by  one  general  in  all  the  years  of  his  life?  In  all  these 
later  years  what  province  have  you  had  free  from  pirates?  what 
revenue  has  been  safe?  what  ally  have  you  been  able  to  protect? 
to  whom  have  your  fleets  been  a  defence  ?  How  many  islands 
do  you  suppose  have  been  deserted?  how  many  cities  of  the  allies 
do  you  think  have  been  either  abandoned  out  of  fear  of  the  pi- 
rates, or  have  been  taken  by  them? 

But  why  do  I  speak  of  distant  events?  It  was — it  was,  in- 
deed, formerly — a  characteristic  of  the  Roman  people  to  carry 
on  its  wars  at  a  distance  from  home,  and  to  defend  by  the  bul- 
warks of  its  power  not  its  own  homes,  but  the  fortunes  of  its 
allies.  Need  I  say,  that  the  sea  has  during  all  these  latter  years 
been  closed  against  your  allies,  when  even  our  own  armies  never 
ventured  to  cross  over  from  Brundusium,  except  in  the  depth  of 
winter?  Need  I  complain  that  men  who  were  coming  to  you 
from  foreign  nations  were  taken  prisoners,  when  even  the  am- 
bassadors of  the  Roman  people  were  forced  to  be  ransomed? 
Need  I  say,  that  the  sea  was  not  safe  for  merchants,  when  twelve 
axes3  came  into  the  power  of  the  pirates?  Need  I  mention, 
how  Cnidus,  and  Colophon,  and  Samos,  most  noble  cities,  and 
others  too  in  countless  numbers,  were  taken  by  them,  when  you 
know  that  your  own  harbors,  and  those  harbors  too  from  which 
you  derive,  as  it  were,  your  very  life  and  breath,  were  in  the 
power  of  the  pirates?  Are  you  ignorant  that  the  harbor  of 
Caieta,  that  illustrious  harbor,  when  full  of  ships,  was  plundered 
by  the  pirates  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  praetor?  and  that  from 
Misenum,  the  children  of  the  very  man  who  had  before  that 
waged  war  against  the  pirates  in  that  place,  were  carried  off  by 

8  The  Scholiast  says  that  a  consul  prisoner  by  the  pirates,  and  sold  with 
named  Milienus  (whose  name,  however,  his  ensigns  of  office.  The  axes  mean 
does  not  appear  in  the  Fasti)  was  taken  his  fasces. 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN   LAW     183 

the  pirates?  For  why  should  I  complain  of  the  disaster  of  Ostia, 
and  of  that  stain  and  blot  on  the  republic,  when  almost  under 
your  very  eyes,  that  fleet  which  was  under  the  command  of  a 
Roman  consul  was  taken  and  destroyed  by  the  pirates?  O  ye 
immortal  gods!  could  the  incredible  and  godlike  virtue  of  one 
man  in  so  short  a  time  bring  so  much  light  to  the  republic,  that 
you  who  had  lately  been  used  to  see  a  fleet  of  the  enemy  before 
the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  should  now  hear  that  there  is  not  one 
ship  belonging  to  the  pirates  within  the  Pillars  of  Hercules? 
And  although  you  have  sen  with  what  rapidity  these  things  were 
done,  still  that  rapidity  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  by  me  in 
speaking  of  them.  For  who  ever,  even  if  he  were  only  going 
for  the  purpose  of  transacting  business  or  making  profit,  con- 
trived in  so  short  a  time  to  visit  so  many  places,  and  to  perform 
such  long  journeys,  with  as  great  celerity  as  Cnseus  Pompeius 
has  performed  his  voyage,  bearing  with  him  the  terrors  of  war 
as  our  general?  He,  when  the  weather  could  hardly  be  called 
open  for  sailing,  went  to  Sicily,  explored  the  coasts  of  Africa; 
from  thence  he  came  with  his  fleet  to  Sardinia,  and  these  three 
great  granaries  of  the  republic  he  fortified  with  powerful  garri- 
sons and  fleets;  when,  leaving  Sardinia,  he  came  to  Italy,  having 
secured  the  two  Spains  and  Cisalpine  Gaul  with  garrisons  and 
ships.  Having  sent  vessels  also  to  the  coast  of  Illyricum,  and  to 
every  part  of  Achaia  and  Greece,  he  also  adorned  the  two  seas  of 
Italy  with  very  large  fleets,  and  very  sufficient  garrisons;  and  he 
himself  going  in  person,  added  all  Cilicia  to  the  dominions  of 
the  Roman  people,  on  the  forty-ninth  day  after  he  set  out  from 
Brundusium.  All  the  pirates  who  were  anywhere  to  be  found, 
were  either  taken  prisoners  and  put  to  death,  or  else  had  sur- 
rendered themselves  voluntarily  to  the  power  and  authority  of 
this  one  man.  Also,  when  the  Cretans  had  sent  ambassadors  to 
implore  his  mercy  even  into  Pamphylia  to  him,  he  did  not  deny 
them  hopes  of  being  allowed  to  surrender,  and  he  exacted  host- 
ages from  them.  And  thus  Cnseus  Pompeius  at  the  end  of  win- 
ter prepared,  at  the  beginning  of  spring  undertook,  and  by  the 
middle  of  summer  terminated,  this  most  important  war,  which 
had  lasted  so  long,  which  was  scattered  in  such  distant  and  such 
various  places,  and  by  which  every  nation  and  country  was  in- 
cessantly distressed. 
This  is  the  godlike  and  incredible  virtue  of  that  general, 


1 84  CICERO 

What  .nore  shall  I  say?  How  many  and  how  great  are  his  other 
exploits  which  I  began  to  mention  a  short  time  back;  for  we  are 
not  only  to  seek  for  skill  in  war  in  a  consummate  and  perfect 
general,  but  there  are  many  other  eminent  qualities  which  are 
the  satellites  and  companions  of  this  virtue.  And  first  of  all, 
how  great  should  be  the  incorruptibility  of  generals!  How 
great  should  be  their  moderation  in  everything!  how  perfect 
their  good  faith !  How  universal  should  be  their  affability!  how 
brilliant  their  genius!  how  tender  their  humanity!  And  let  us 
briefly  consider  to  what  extent  these  qualities  exisi  in  Cnaeus 
Pompeius.  For  they  are  all  of  the  highest  importance,  O 
Romans,  but  yet  they  are  to  be  seen  and  ascertained  more  by 
comparison  with  the  conduct  of  others  than  by  any  display 
which  they  make  of  themselves.  For  how  can  we  rank  a  man 
among  generals  of  any  class  at  all,  if  centurionships  *  are  sold, 
and  have  been  constantly  sold  in  his  army?  What  great  or  hon- 
orable thoughts  can  we  suppose  that  that  man  cherishes  concern- 
ing the  republic,  who  has  either  distributed  the  money  which 
was  taken  from  the  treasury  for  the  conduct  of  the  war  among 
the  magistrates,  out  of  ambition5  to  keep  his  province,  or,  out  of 
avarice,  has  left  it  behind  him  at  Rome,  invested  for  his  own 
advantage?  Your  murmurs  show,  O  Romans,  that  you  recog- 
nize, in  my  description,  men  who  have  done  these  things.  But 
I  name  no  one,  so  that  no  one  can  be  angry  with  me,  without 
making  confession  beforehand  of  his  own  malpractices.  But 
who  is  there  who  is  ignorant  what  terrible  distresses  our  armies 
suffer  wherever  they  go,  through  this  covetousness  of  our  gen- 
erals? Recollect  the  marches  which,  during  these  latter  years, 
our  generals  have  made  in  Italy,  through  the  lands  and  towns  of 
the  Roman  citizens;  then  you  will  more  easily  imagine  what  is 
the  course  pursued  among  foreign  nations.  Do  you  think  that 
of  late  years  more  cities  of  the  enemy  have  been  destroyed  by  the 
arms  of  your  soldiers,  or  more  cities  of  your  own  allies  by  their 
winter  campaigns?  For  that  general  who  does  not  restrain 
himself  can  never  restrain  his  army;  nor  can  he  be  strict  in  judg- 
ing others  who  is  unwilling  for  others  to  be  strict  in  judging 

*  The    Scholiast    says    that    Cicero    is  large    sums    in    soliciting    the    votes    of 

here   hinting   at   Glabrio   the   consul,   or  influential  men.  so  as  to  be  left  in  com- 

at  the  younger  Marius.  mand  of  the  province  of  Asja,  in  which 

8  Lucullus    is    supposed   to    be    meant  he  had  amassed  enormous  riches, 
here,  as  it  is  said  that  he  had  employed 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE   PROPOSED   MANILIAN   LAW     185 

him.  Do  we  wonder  now  that  this  man  should  be  so  far 
superior  to  all  others,  when  his  legions  arrived  in  Asia  in  such 
order  that  not  only  no  man's  hand  in  so  numerous  an  army,  but 
not  even  any  man's  footstep  was  said  to  have  done  the  least  in- 
jury to  any  peaceful  inhabitant?  But  now  we  have  daily  ru- 
mors— ay,  and  letters  too — brought  to  Rome  about  the  way  in 
which  the  soldiers  are  behaving  in  their  winter-quarters;  not 
only  is  no  one  compelled  to  spend  money  on  the  entertainment 
of  the  troops,  but  he  is  not  permitted  to  do  so,  even  if  he  wish. 
For  our  ancestors  thought  fit  that  the  houses  of  our  allies  and 
friends  should  be  a  shelter  to  our  soldiers  from  the  winter,  not 
a  theatre  for  the  exercise  of  their  avarice. 

Come  now,  consider  also  what  moderation  he  has  displayed 
in  other  matters  also.  How  was  it,  do  you  suppose,  that  he  was 
able  to  display  that  excessive  rapidity,  and  to  perform  that  in- 
credible voyage?  For  it  was  no  unexampled  number  of  rowers, 
no  hitherto  unknown  skill  in  navigation,  no  new  winds,  which 
bore  him  so  swiftly  to  the  most  distant  lands;  but  those  circum- 
stances which  are  wont  to  delay  other  men  did  not  delay  him. 
No  avarice  turned  him  aside  from  his  intended  route  in  pursuit 
of  some  plunder  or  other;  no  lust  led  him  away  in  pursuit  of 
pleasure;  no  luxury  allured  him  to  seek  its  delights;  the  illus- 
trious reputation  of  no  city  tempted  him  to  make  its  acquaint- 
ance; even  labor  did  not  turn  him  aside  rest.  Lastly,  as 
for  the  statues,  and  pictures,  and  other  embellishments  of  Greek 
cities,  which  ^.ther  men  think  worth  carrying  away,  he  did  not 
think  them  worthy  even  of  a  visit  from  him.  And,  therefore, 
everyone  in  those  countries  looks  upon  Cnaeus  Pompeius  as 
someone  descended  from  heaven,  not  as  someone  sent  out  from 
this  city.  Now  they  begin  to  believe  that  there  really  were 
formerly  Romans  of  the  same  moderation ;  which  hitherto  has 
seemed  to  foreign  nations  a  thing  incredible,  a  false  and  ridicu- 
lous tradition.  Now  the  splendor  of  your  dominion  is  really 
brilliant  in  the  eyes  of  those  nations.  Now  they  understand  that 
it  was  not  without  reason  that,  when  we  had  magistrates  of  the 
same  moderation,  their  ancestors  preferred  being  subjects  to  the 
Roman  people  to  being  themselves  lords  of  other  nations.  But 
now  the  access  of  all  private  individuals  to  him  is  so  easy,  their 
complaints  of  the  injuries  received  from  others  are  so  little 
checked,  that  he  who  in  dignity  is  superior  to  the  noblest  men, 


186  CICERO 

in  affability  seems  to  be  on  a  par  with  the  meanest.  How  great 
his  wisdom  is,  how  great  his  authority  and  fluency  in  speaking — 
and  that  too  is  a  quality  in  which  the  dignity  of  a  general;  is 
greatly  concerned — you,  O  Romans,  have  often  experienced 
yourselves  in  this  very  place.  But  how  great  do  you  think  his 
good  faith  must  have  been  toward  your  allies,  when  the  enemies 
of  all  nations  have  placed  implicit  confidence  in  it?  His  hu- 
manity is  such  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  enemy  feared 
his  valor  more  when  fighting  against  him,  or  loved  his  mildness 
more  when  they  had  been  conquered  by  him.  And  will  anyone 
doubt,  that  this  important  war  ought  to  be  intrusted  to  him,  who 
seems  to  have  been  born  by  some  especial  design  and  favor  of 
the  gods  for  the  express  purpose  of  finishing  all  the  wars  which 
have  existed  in  their  own  recollection? 

And  since  authority  has  great  weight  in  conducting  wars,  and 
in  discharging  the  duties  of  military  command,  it  certainly  is  not 
doubtful  to  anyone  that  in  that  point  this  same  general  is  espe- 
cially pre-eminent.  And  who  is  ignorant  that  it  is  of  great  im- 
portance in  the  conduct  of  wars,  what  opinion  the  enemy,  and 
what  opinion  the  allies  have  of  your  generals,  when  we  know 
that  men  are  not  less  influenced  in  such  serious  affairs,  to  de- 
spise, or  fear,  or  hate,  or  love  a  man  by  common  opinion  and 
common  report,  than  by  sure  grounds  and  principles?  What 
name,  then,  in  the  whole  world  has  ever  been  more  illustrious 
than  his?  whose  achievements  have  ever  been  equal  to  his? 
And,  what  gives  authority  in  the  highest  degree,  concerning 
whom  have  you  ever  passed  such  numerous  and  such  honorable 
resolutions?  Do  you  believe  that  there  is  anywhere  in  the 
whole  world  any  place  so  desert  that  the  renown  of  that  day  has 
not  reached  it,  when  the  whole  Roman  people,  the  forum  being 
crowded,  and  all  the  adjacent  temples  from  which  this  place  can 
be  seen  being  completely  filled — the  whole  Roman  people,  I  say, 
demanded  Cnaeus  Pompeius  alone  as  their  general  in  the  war  in 
which  the  common  interests  of  all  nations  were  at  stake?  There- 
fore, not  to  say  more  on  the  subject,  nor  to  confirm  what  I  say 
by  instances  of  others  as  to  the  influence  which  authority  has  in 
war,  all  our  instances  of  splendid  exploits  in  war  must  be  taken 
from  this  same  Cnseus  Pompeius.  The  very  day  that  he  was 
appointed  by  you  commander-in-chief  of  the  maritime  war,  in  a 
moment  such  a  cheapness  of  provisions  ensued  (though  previ- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED   MANILIAN   LAW     187 

ously  there  had  been  a  great  scarcity  of  corn,  and  the  price  had 
been  exceedingly  high),  owing  to  the  hope  conceived  of  one 
single  man,  and  his  high  reputation,  as  could  scarcely  have  been 
produced  by  a  most  productive  harvest  after  a  long  period  of 
peace.  Now,  too,  after  the  disaster  which  befell  us  in  Pontus, 
from  the  result  of  that  battle,  of  which,  sorely  against  my  will,  I 
just  now  reminded  you,  when  our  allies  were  in  a  state  of  alarm, 
when  the  power  and  spirits  of  our  enemies  had  risen,  and  the 
province  was  in  a  very  insufficient  state  of  defence,  you  would 
have  entirely  lost  Asia,  O  Romans,  if  the  fortune  of  the  Roman 
people  had  not,  by  some  divine  interposition,  brought  Cnseus 
Pompeius  at  that  particular  moment  into  those  regions.  His 
arrival  both  checked  Mithridates,  elated  with  his  unusual  vic- 
tory, and  delayed  Tigranes,  who  was  threatening  Asia  with  a 
formidable  army.  And  can  anyone  doubt  what  he  will  accom- 
plish by  his  valor,  when  he  did  so  much  by  his  authority  and 
reputation?  or  how  easily  he  will  preserve  our  allies  and  our 
revenues  by  his  power  and  his  army,  when  he  defended  them  by 
the  mere  terror  of  his  name? 

Come,  now ;  what  a  great  proof  does  this  circumstance  afford 
us  of  the  influence  of  the  same  man  on  the  enemies  of  the  Roman 
people,  that  all  of  them,  living  in  countries  so  far  distant  from  us 
and  from  each  other,  surrendered  themselves  to  him  alone  in  so 
short  a  time?  that  the  ambassadors  of  the  Cretans,  though  there 
was  at  the  time  a  general6  and  an  army  of  ours  in  their  island, 
came  almost  to  the  end  of  the  world  to  Cnseus  Pompeius,  and 
said,  all  the  cities  of  the  Cretans  were  willing  to  surrender  them- 
selves to  him?  What  did  Mithridates  himself  do?  Did  he  not 
send  an  ambassador  into  Spain  to  the  same  Cnseus  Pompeius?  a 
man  whom  Pompeius  has  always  considered  an  ambassador,  but 
who  that  party,  to  whom  it  has  always  been  a  source  of  annoy- 
ance that  he  was  sent  to  him  particularly,  have  contended  was 
sent  as  a  spy  rather  than  as  an  ambassador.  You  can  now,  then, 
O  Romans,  form  an  accurate  judgment  how  much  weight  you 
must  suppose  that  this  authority  of  his — now,  too,  that  it  has 
been  further  increased  by  many  subsequent  exploits,  and  by 
many  commendatory  resolutions  of  your  own — will  have  with 
those  kings  and  among  foreign  nations. 

It  remains  for  me  timidly  and  briefly  to  speak  of  his  good 
•Metellus,  afterward  called  Creticus,  from  his  victory  over  the  Cretans, 


1 88  CICERO 

fortune,  a  quality  which  no  man  ought  to  boast  of  in  his  own 
case,  but  which  we  may  remember  and  commemorate  as  hap- 
pening to  another,  just  as  a  man  may  extol  the  power  of  the 
gods.  For  my  judgment  is  this,  that  very  often  commands  have 
been  conferred  upon,  and  armies  have  been  intrusted  to  Maxi- 
mus,  Marccllus,  to  Scipio,  to  Marius,  and  to  other  great  gener- 
als, not  only  on  account  of  their  valor,  but  also  on  account  of 
their  good  fortune.  For  there  has  been,  in  truth,  in  the  case  of 
some  most  illustrious  men,  good  fortune  added  as  some  contri- 
bution of  the  gods  to  their  honor  and  glory,  and  as  a  means  of 
performing  mighty  achievements.  But  concerning  the  good 
fortune  of  this  man  of  whom  we  are  now  speaking,  I  will  use  so 
much  moderation  as  not  to  say  that  good  fortune  was  actually 
placed  in  his  power,  but  I  will  so  speak  as  to  appear  to  remember 
what  is  past,  to  have  good  hope  of  what  is  to  come ;  so  that  my 
speech  may,  on  the  one  hand,  not  appear  to  the  immortal  gods 
to  be  arrogant,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  to  be  ungrateful.  Ac- 
cordingly, I  do  not  intend  to  mention,  O  Romans,  what  great 
exploits  he  has  achieved  both  at  home  and  in  war,  by  land  and 
by  sea,  and  with  what  invariable  felicity  he  has  achieved  them ; 
how,  not  only  the  citizens  have  always  consented  to  his  wishes, 
the  allies  complied  with  them,  the  enemy  obeyed  them,  but  how 
even  the  winds  and  weather  have  seconded  them.  I  will  only 
say  this,  most  briefly :  that  no  one  has  ever  been  so  impudent  as 
to  dare  in  silence  to  wish  for  so  many  and  such  great  favors  as 
the  immortal  gods  have  showered  upon  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  And 
that  this  favor  may  continue  his,  and  be  perpetual,  you,  O 
Romans,  ought  to  wish  and  pray  (as,  indeed,  you  do),  both  for 
the  sake  of  the  common  safety  and  prosperity,  and  for  the  sake 
of  the  man  himself. 

Wherefore,  as  the  war  is  at  the  same  time  so  necessary  that  it 
cannot  be  neglected,  so  important  that  it  must  be  conducted 
with  the  greatest  care;  and  since  you  have  it  in  your  power  to 
appoint  a  general  to  conduct  it,  in  whom  there  is  the  most  per- 
fect knowledge  of  war,  the  most  extraordinary  valor,  the  most 
splendid  personal  influence,  and  the  most  eminent  good  fortune, 
can  you  hesitate,  O  Romans,  to  apply  this  wonderful  advantage 
which  is  offered  you  and  given  you  by  the  immortal  gods,  to  the 
preservation  and  increase  of  the  power  of  the  republic? 

But,  if  Cnaeus  Pompeius  were  a  private  individual  at  Rome  at 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN   LAW     189 

this  present  time,  still  he  would  be  the  man  who  ought  to  be 
selected  and  sent  out  to  so  great  a  war.  But  now,  when  to  all 
all  the  other  exceeding  advantages  of  the  appointment,  this  op- 
portunity is  also  added — that  he  is  in  those  very  countries  al- 
ready— that  he  has  an  army  with  him — that  there  is  another 
army  there  which  can  at  once  be  made  over  to  him  by  those  who 
are  in  command  of  it — why  do  we  delay?  or  why  do  we  not, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  immortal  gods  themselves,  commit 
this  royal  war  also  to  him  to  whom  all  the  other  wars  in  those 
parts  have  been  already  intrusted  to  the  greatest  advantage,  to 
the  very  safety  of  the  republic  ? 

But,  to  be  sure,  that  most  illustrious  man,  Quintus  Catulus,  a 
man  most  honestly  attached  to  the  republic,  and  loaded  with 
your  kindness  in  a  way  most  honorable  to  him;  and  also  Quintus 
Hortensius,  a  man  endowed  with  the  highest  qualities  of  honor, 
and  fortune,  and  virtue,  and  genius,  disagree  to  this  proposal. 
And  I  admit  that  their  authority  has  in  many  instances  had  the 
greatest  weight  with  you,  and  that  it  ought  to  have  the  greatest 
weight;  but  in  this  cause,  although  you  are  aware  that  the 
opinions  of  many  very  brave  and  illustrious  men  are  unfavor- 
able to  us,  still  it  is  possible  for  us,  disregarding  those  authori- 
ties, to  arrive  at  the  truth  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case  and  by 
reason.  And  so  much  the  more  easily,  because  those  very  men- 
admit  that  everything  which  has  been  said  by  me  up  to  this  time 
is  true — that  the  war  is  necessary,  that  it  is  an  important  war, 
and  that  all  the  requisite  qualifications  are  in  the  highest  perfec- 
tion in  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  What  then,  does  Hortensius  say? 
"  That  if  the  whole  power  must  be  given  to  one  man,  Pompeius 
alone  is  most  worthy  to  have  it ;  but  that,  nevertheless,  the  power 
ought  not  to  be  intrusted  to  one  individual."  That  argument, 
however,  has  now  become  obsolete,  having  been  refuted  much 
more  by  facts  than  by  words.  For  you,  also,  Quintus  Horten- 
sius, said  many  things  with  great  force  and  fluency  (as  might  be 
expected  from  your  exceeding  ability,  and  eminent  facility  as  an 
orator)  in  the  Senate  against  that  brave  man,  Aulus  Gabinius, 
when  he  had  brought  forward  the  law  about  appointing  one 
commander-in-chief  against  the  pirates;  and  also  from  this  place 
where  I  now  stand,  you  made  a  long  speech  against  that  law. 
What  then?  By  the  immortal  gods,  if  your  authority  had  had 
greater  weight  with  the  Roman  people  than  the  safety  and  real 


190  CICERO 

interests  of  the  Roman  people  itself,  should  we  have  been  this  day 
in  possession  of  our  present  glory,  and  of  the  empire  of  the  whole 
earth?  Did  this,  then,  appear  to  you  to  be  dominion,  when  it 
was  a  common  thing  for  the  ambassadors,  and  praetors,  and 
quaestors  of  the  Roman  people  to  be  taken  prisoners?  when  we 
were  cut  off  from  all  supplies,  both  public  and  private,  from  all 
our  provinces?  when  all  the  seas  were  so  closed  against  us,  that 
we  could  neither  visit  any  private  estate  of  our  own,  nor  any 
public  domain  beyond  the  sea? 

What  city  ever  was  there  before  this  time — I  speak  not  of  the 
city  of  the  Athenians,  which  is  said  formerly  to  have  had  a  suffi- 
ciently extensive  naval  dominion  ;  nor  of  that  of  the  Carthagin- 
ians, who  had  great  power  with  their  fleet  and  maritime  re- 
sources; nor  of  those  of  the  Rhodians,  whose  naval  discipline 
and  naval  renown  have  lasted  even  to  our  recollection — but  was 
there  ever  any  city  before  this  time  so  insignificant,  if  it  was  only 
a  small  island,  as  not  to  be  able  by  its  own  power  to  defend  its 
harbors,  and  its  lands,  and  some  part  of  its  country  and  mari- 
time coast?  But,  forsooth,  for  many  years  before  the  Gabinian 
law  was  passed,  the  Roman  people,  whose  name,  till  within  our 
own  memory,  remained  invincible  in  naval  battles,  was  deprived 
not  only  of  a  great,  ay,  of  much  the  greatest  part  of  its  usefulness, 
but  also  of  its  dignity  and  dominion.  We,  whose  ancestors  con- 
quered with  our  fleets  Antiochus  the  king,  and  Perses,  and  in 
every  naval  engagement  defeated  the  Carthaginians,  the  best 
practised  and  best  equipped  of  all  men  in  maritime  affairs ;  we 
could  now  in  no  place  prove  ourselves  equal  to  the  pirates.  We, 
who  formerly  had  not  only  all  Italy  in  safety,  but  who  were  able 
by  the  authority  of  our  empire  to  secure  the  safety  of  all  our 
allies  in  the  most  distant  countries,  so  that  even  the  island  of 
Delos,  situated  so  far  from  us  in  the  yEgean  Sea,  at  which  all 
men  were  in  the  habit  of  touching  with  their  merchandise  and 
their  freights,  full  of  riches  as  it  was,  little  and  unwalled  as  it 
was,  still  was  in  no  alarm ;  we,  I  say,  were  cut  off,  not  only  from 
our  provinces,  and  from  the  sea-coast  of  Italy,  and  from  our 
harbors,  but  even  from  the  Appian  road;  and  at  this  time,  the 
magistrates  of  the  Roman  people  were  not  ashamed  to  come  up 
into  this  very  rostrum  where  I  am  standing,  which  your  ances- 
tors had  bequeathed  to  you  adorned  with  nautical  trophies,  and 
the  spoils  of  the  enemy's  fleet. 


IN   DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED   MANILIAN   LAW     191 

When  you  opposed  that  law,  the  Roman  people,  O  Quintus 
Hortensius,  thought  that  you,  and  the  others  who  held  the 
same  opinion  with  you,  delivered  your  sentiments  in  a  bold  and 
gallant  spirit.  But  still,  in  a  matter  affecting  the  safety  of  the 
commonwealth,  the  Roman  people  preferred  consulting  its  own 
feelings  of  indignation  to  your  authority.  Accordingly,  one 
law,  one  man,  and  one  year,  delivered  us  not  only  from  that 
misery  and  disgrace,  but  also  caused  us  again  at  length  to  appear 
really  to  be  masters  of  all  nations  and  countries  by  land  and  sea. 
And  on  this  account  the  endeavor  to  detract,  shall  I  say  from 
Gabinius,  or  from  Pompeius,  or  (what  would  be  truer  still)  from 
both?  appears  to  me  particularly  unworthy;  being  done  in  order 
that  Aulus  Gabinius  might  not  be  appointed  lieutenant  to  Cnae- 
us  Pompeius,  though  he  requested  and  begged  it.  Is  he  who 
begs  for  a  particular  lieutenant  in  so  important  a  war  unworthy 
to  obtain  anyone  whom  he  desires,  when  all  other  generals  have 
taken  whatever  lieutenants  they  chose,  to  assist  them  in  pillag- 
ing the  allies  and  plundering  the  provinces?  or  ought  he,  by 
whose  law  safety  and  dignity  have  been  given  to  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, and  to  all  nations,  to  be  prevented  from  sharing  in  the  glory 
of  that  commander  and  that  army,  which  exists  through  his  wis- 
dom and  was  appointed  at  his  risk?  Was  it  allowed  to  Caius 
Falcidius,  to  Quintus  Metellus,  to  Quintus  Caelius  Laterensis, 
and  to  Cnseus  Lentulus,  all  of  whom  I  name  to  do  them  honor, 
to  be  lieutenants  the  year  after  they  had  been  tribunes  of  the 
people ;  and  shall  men  be  so  exact  in  the  case  of  Gabinius  alone, 
who,  in  this  war  which  is  carried  on  under  the  provisions  of  the 
Gabinian  law,  and  in  the  case  of  this  commander  and  this  army 
which  he  himself  appointed  with  your  assistance,  ought  to  have 
the  first  right  of  anyone  ?  And  concerning  whose  appointment 
as  lieutenant  I  hope  that  the  consuls  will  bring  forward  a  motion 
in  the  Senate;  and  if  they  hesitate,  or  are  unwilling  to  do  so,  I 
undertake  to  bring  it  forward  myself;  nor,  O  Romans,  shall  the 
hostile  edict  of  anyone  deter  me  from  relying  on  you  and  de- 
fending your  privileges  and  your  kindness.  Nor  will  I  listen 
to  anything  except  the  interposition  of  the  tribunes;  and  as  to 
that,  those  very  men  who  threaten  it,  will,  I  apprehend,  consider 
over  and  over  again  what  they  have  a  right  to  do.  In  my  own 
opinion,  O  Romans,  Aulus  Gabinius  alone  has  a  right  to  be  put 
by  the  side  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  as  a  partner  of  the  glory  of  his 


192  CICERO 

exploits  in  the  maritime  war;  because  the  one,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  your  votes,  gave  to  that  man  alone  the  task  of  undertak- 
ing that  war,  and  the  other,  when  it  was  intrusted  to  him,  under- 
took it  and  terminated  it. 

It  remains  for  me  to  speak  of  the  authority  and  opinion  of 
Quintus  Catulus;  who,  when  he  asked  of  you,  if  you  thus  placed 
all  your  dependence  on  Cnseus  Pompeius,  in  whom  you  would 
have  any  hope,  if  anything  were  to  happen  to  him,  received  a 
splendid  reward  for  his  own  virtue  and  worth,  when  you  all,  with 
almost  one  voice,  cried  out  that  you  would,  in  that  case,  put  your 
trust  in  him.  In  truth  he  is  such  a  man,  that  no  affair  can  be  so 
important,  or  so  difficult,  that  he  cannot  manage  it  by  his  wis- 
dom, or  defend  it  by  his  integrity,  or  terminate  it  by  his  valor. 
But,  in  this  case,  I  entirely  differ  from  him;  because,  the  less 
certain  and  the  less  lasting  the  life  of  man  is,  the  more  ought  the 
republic  to  avail  itself  of  the  life  and  valor  of  any  admirable  man, 
as  long  as  the  immortal  gods  allow  it  to  do  so.  But  let  no  inno- 
vation be  established  contrary  to  the  precedents  and  principles  of 
our  ancestors.  I  will  not  say,  at  this  moment,  that  our  ances- 
tors in  peace  always  obeyed  usage,  but  in  war  were  always 
guided  by  expediency,  and  always  accommodated  themselves 
with  new  plans  to  the  new  emergencies  of  the  times.  I  will  not 
say  that  two  most  important  wars,  the  Punic  War  and  the  Span- 
ish War,  were  put  an  end  to  by  one  general ;  that  two  most  pow- 
erful cities,  which  threatened  the  greatest  danger  to  this  empire 
— Carthage  and  Numantia,  were  destroyed  by  the  same  Scipio. 
I  will  not  remind  you  that  it  was  but  lately  determined  by  you 
and  by  your  ancestors,  to  rest  all  the  hopes  of  the  empire  on 
Caius  Marius,  so  that  the  same  man  conducted  the  war  against 
Jugurtha,  and  against  the  Cimbri,  and  against  the  Teutones. 
But  recollect,  in  the  case  of  Cnseus  Pompeius  himself,  with  ref- 
erence to  whom  Catulus  objects  to  having  any  new  regulations 
introduced,  how  many  new  laws  have  been  made  with  the  most 
willing  consent  of  Quintus  Catulus. 

For  what  can  be  so  unprecedented  as  for  a  young  man  in  a 
private  capacity  to  levy  an  army  at  a  most  critical  time  of  the 
republic?  He  levied  one.  To  command  it?  He  did  com- 
mand it.  To  succeed  gloriously  in  his  undertaking?  He  did 
succeed.  What  can  be  so  entirely  contrary  to  usage,  as  for  a 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN  LAW    193 

very  young  man,  whose  age  7  fell  far  short  of  that  required  for 
the  rank  of  a  senator,  to  have  a  command  and  an  army  intrusted 
to  him?  to  have  Sicily  committed  to  his  care,  and  Africa,  and  the 
war  which  was  to  be  carried  on  there?  He  conducted  himself 
in  these  provinces  with  singular  blamelessness,  dignity,  and 
valor;  he  terminated  a  most  serious  war  in  Africa,  and  brought 
away  his  army  victorious.  But  what  was  ever  so  unheard-of  as 
for  a  Roman  knight  to  have  a  triumph?  But  even  that  circum- 
stance the  Roman  people  not  only  saw,  but  they  thought  that  it 
deserved  to  be  thronged  to  and  honored  with  all  possible  zeal. 
What  was  ever  so  unusual,  as,  when  there  were  two  most  gal- 
lant and  most  illustrious  consuls,  for  a  Roman  knight  to  be  sent 
as  proconsul  to  a  most  important  and  formidable  war?  He 
was  so  sent — on  which  occasion,  indeed,  when  someone  in  the 
Senate  said  that  a  private  individual  ought  not  to  be  sent  as 
proconsul,  Lucius  Philippus  is  reported  to  have  answered,  that 
if  he  had  his  will  he  should  be  sent  not  for  one  consul,  but  for 
both  the  consuls.  Such  great  hope  was  entertained  that  the 
affairs  of  the  republic  would  be  prosperously  managed  by  him, 
that  the  charge  which  properly  belonged  to  the  two  consuls  was 
intrusted  to  the  valor  of  one  young  man.  What  was  ever  so 
extraordinary  as  for  a  man  to  be  released  from  all  laws  by  a 
formal  resolution  of  the  Senate,  and  made  consul  before  he  was 
of  an  age  to  undertake  any  other  magistracy  according  to  the 
laws?  What  could  be  so  incredible,  as  for  a  Roman  knight  to 
celebrate  a  second  triumph  in  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the 
Senate?  All  the  unusual  circumstances  which  in  the  memory  of 
man  have  ever  happened  to  all  other  men  put  together,  are  not 
so  many  as  these  which  we  see  have  occurred  in  the  history  of 
this  one  man.  And  all  these  instances,  numerous,  important, 
and  novel  as  they  are,  have  all  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  same 
man,  taking  their  rise  in  the  authority  of  Quintus  Catulus  him- 
self, and  by  that  of  other  most  honorable  men  of  the  same  rank. 

7  "  As  regards  the  age  at  which  a  per-  quaestorship  was  thirty-one.     Now  as  it 

son   might   become  a  senator,   we   have  might  happen  that  a  qurestor  was  made 

no    express   statement    for   the   time    of  a  senator  immediately  after  the  expira- 

the  republic,  although  it  appears  to  have  tion  of  his  office,  we  mav  presume  that 

been  fixed  by  some  custom  or  law,   as  the   earliest  age  at  which  a   man  could 

the    setas    senatoria    is    frequently    men-  become  a  senator  was  thirty-two.     Au- 

tioned,   especially  during  the  latter   pe-  gustus   at  last   fixed   the   senatorial   age 

riod   of   the   republic;    but   we   may   by  at    twenty-five,    which    appears    to    have 

induction  discover  the  probable  age.    We  remained  unaltered  throughout  the  time 

know  that  according  to  the  law  of  the  of   the    empire." — Smith,    Dictionary    of 

tribune   Villius    the   age    fixed   for   the  Antiquities,  p.  851,  v.  Senatus. 

13 


194 


CICERO 


Wherefore,  let  them  take  care  that  it  is  not  considered  a  most 
unjust  and  intolerable  thing,  that  their  authority  in  matters  af- 
fecting the  dignity  of  Cnseus  Pompeius  should  hitherto  have 
been  constantly  approved  of  by  you,  but  that  your  judgment, 
and  the  authority  of  the  Roman  people  in  the  case  of  the  same 
man,  should  be  disregarded  by  them.  Especially  when  the 
Roman  people  can  now,  of  its  own  right,  defend  its  own  au- 
thority with  respect  to  this  man  against  all  who  dispute  it — be- 
cause, when  those  very  same  men  objected,  you  chose  him 
alone  of  all  men  to  appoint  to  the  management  of  the  war  against 
the  pirates.  If  you  did  this  at  random,  and  had  but  little  regard 
for  the  interests  of  the  republic,  then  they  are  right  to  endeavor 
to  guide  your  party  spirit  by  their  wisdom;  but  if  you  at  that 
time  showed  more  foresight  in  the  affairs  of  the  state  than  they 
did;  if  you,  in  spite  of  their  resistance,  by  yourselves  conferred 
dignity  on  the  empire,  safety  on  the  whole  world ;  then  at  last  let 
those  noble  men  confess  that  both  they  and  all  other  men  must 
obey  the  authority  of  the  universal  Roman  people.  And  in  this 
Asiatic  and  royal  war,  not  only  is  that  military  valor  required, 
which  exists  in  a  singular  degree  in  Cnseus  Pompeius,  but  many 
other  great  virtues  of  mind  are  also  demanded.  It  is  difficult  for 
your  commander-in-chief  in  Asia,  Cilicia,  Syria,  and  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  inland  nations,  to  behave  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  think  of  nothing  else  but  the  enemy  and  glory.  Then,  even 
if  there  be  some  men  moderate  and  addicted  to  the  practice  of 
modesty  and  self-government,  still,  such  is  the  multitude  of 
covetous  and  licentious  men,  that  no  one  thinks  that  these  are 
such  men.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  you,  O  Romans,  how  great  our 
unpopularity  is  among  foreign  nations,  on  account  of  the  in- 
jurious and  licentious  behavior  of  those  whom  we  have  of  late 
years  sent  among  them  with  military  command.  For,  in  all 
those  countries  which  are  now  under  our  dominion,  what  temple 
do  you  think  has  had  a  sufficiently  holy  reputation,  what  city  has 
been  sufficiently  sacred,  what  private  house  has  been  sufficiently 
closed  and  fortified,  to  be  safe  from  them?  They  seek  out 
wealthy  and  splendid  cities  to  find  pretence  for  making  war  on 
them  for  the  sake  of  plundering  them.  I  would  willingly  argue 
this  with  those  most  eminent  and  illustrious  men,  Quintus  Cat- 
ulus  and  Quintus  Hortensius ;  for  they  know  the  distresses  of 
the  allies,  they  see  their  calamities,  they  hear  their  complaints. 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED   MANILIAN  LAW     195 

Do  you  think  that  you  are  sending  an  army  in  defence  of  your 
allies  against  their  enemies,  or  rather,  under  pretence  of  the  ex- 
istence of  enemies,  against  your  allies  and  friends  themselves  ? 
What  city  is  there  in  Asia  which  can  stand  the  ferocity  and  arro- 
gance, I  will  not  say  of  the  army,  of  a  commander-in-chief,  or 
of  a  lieutenant,  but  of  even  the  brigade  of  one  single  military 
tribune  ? 

So  that  even  if  you  have  anyone  who  may  appear  able  to  cope 
in  terms  of  advantage  with  the  king's  armies,  still,  unless  he  be 
also  a  man  who  can  keep  his  hands,  and  eyes,  and  desires  from 
the  treasures  of  the  allies,  from  their  wives  and  children,  from 
the  ornaments  of  their  temples  and  cities,  from  the  gold  and 
jewels  of  the  king,  he  will  not  be  a  fit  person  to  be  sent  to  this 
Asiatic  and  royal  war.  Do  you  think  that  there  is  any  city 
there  peacefully  inclined  towards  us  which  is  rich?  Do  you 
think  that  there  is  any  rich  city  there,  which  will  appear  to  those 
men  to  be  peacefully  inclined  towards  us?  The  sea-coast,  O 
Romans,  begged  for  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  not  only  on  account  of 
his  renown  for  military  achievements,  but  also  because  of  the 
moderation  of  his  disposition.  For  it  saw  that  it  was  not  the 
Roman  people  that  was  enriched  every  year  by  the  public 
money,  but  only  a  few  individuals,  and  that  we  did  nothing  more 
by  the  name  of  our  fleets  beyond  sustaining  losses,  and  so  cover- 
ing ourselves  with  additional  disgrace.  But  now,  are  these 
men,  who  think  that  all  these  honors  and  offices  are  not  to  be 
conferred  on  one  person,  ignorant  with  what  desires,  with  what 
hope  of  retrieving  past  losses,  and  on  what  conditions,  these 
men  go  to  the  provinces?  As  if  Cnaeus  Pompeius  did  not  ap- 
pear great  in  our  eyes,  not  only  on  account  of  his  own  positive 
virtues,  but  by  a  comparison  with  the  vices  of  others.  And, 
therefore,  do  not  you  doubt  to  intrust  everything  to  him  alone, 
when  he  has  been  found  to  be  the  only  man  for  many  years 
whom  the  allies  are  glad  to  see  come  to  their  cities  with  an  army. 
And  if  you  think  that  our  side  of  the  argument,  O  Romans, 
should  be  confirmed  by  authorities,  you  have  the  authority  of 
Publius  Servilius,  a  man  of  the  greatest  skill  in  all  wars,  and  in 
affairs  of  the  greatest  importance,  who  has  performed  such 
mighty  achievements  by  land  and  sea,  that,  when  you  are  de- 
liberating about  war,  no  one's  authority  ought  to  have  more 
weight  with  you.  You  have  the  authority  of  Caius  Curio,  a 


196  CICERO 

man  who  has  received  great  kindnesses  from  you,  who  has  per- 
formed great  exploits,  who  is  endued  with  the  highest  abilities 
and  wisdom;  and  of  Cnaeus  Lentulus,  in  whom  all  of  you  know 
there  is  (as,  indeed,  there  ought  to  be,  from  the  ample  honors 
which  you  have  heaped  upon  him)  the  most  eminent  wisdom, 
and  the  greatest  dignity  of  character ;  and  of  Caius  Cassius,  a 
man  of  extraordinary  integrity,  and  valor,  and  virtue.  Consider, 
therefore,  whether  we  do  not  seem  by  the  authority  of  these  men 
to  give  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  speeches  of  those  men  who 
differ  from  us. 

And  as  this  is  the  case,  O  Caius  Manilius,  in  the  first  place,  I 
exceedingly  praise  and  approve  of  that  law  of  yours,  and  of  your 
purpose,  and  of  your  sentiments.  And  in  the  second  place,  I 
exhort  you,  having  the  approbation  of  the  Roman  people,  to 
persevere  in  those  sentiments,  and  not  to  fear  the  violence  or 
threats  of  anyone.  And,  first  of  all,  I  think  you  have  the  requi- 
site courage  and  perseverance;  and,  secondly,  when  we  see  such 
a  multitude  present  displaying  such  zeal  in  our  cause  as  we  now 
see  displayed  for  the  second  time,  in  appointing  the  same  man 
to  the  supreme  command,  how  can  we  doubt  in  the  matter,  or 
question  our  power  of  carrying  our  point  ?  As  for  me,  all  the 
zeal,  and  wisdom,  and  industry,  and  ability  of  which  I  am  pos- 
sessed, all  the  influence  which  I  have  through  the  kindness 
shown  for  me  by  the  Roman  people,  and  through  my  power  as 
praetor,  as  also,  through  my  reputation  for  authority,  good  faith, 
and  virtue,  all  of  it  I  pledge  to  you  and  the  Roman  people,  and 
devote  to  the  object  of  carrying  this  resolution.  And  I  call  all 
the  gods  to  witness,  and  especially  those  who  preside  over  this 
place  and  temple,  who  see  into  the  minds  of  all  those  who  apply 
themselves  to  affairs  of  state,  that  I  am  not  doing  this  at  the  re- 
quest of  anyone,  nor  because  I  think  to  conciliate  the  favor  of 
Cnseus  Pompeius  by  taking  this  side,  nor  in  order,  through  the 
greatness  of  anyone  else,  to  seek  for  myself  protection  against 
dangers,  or  aids  in  the  acquirement  of  honors;  because,  as  for 
dangers,  we  shall  easily  repel  them,  as  a  man  ought  to  do,  pro- 
tected by  our  own  innocence;  and  as  for  honors,  we  shall  not 
gain  them  by  the  favor  of  any  men,  nor  by  anything  tha.t  happens 
in  this  place,  but  by  the  same  laborious  course  of  life  which  I 
have  hitherto  adopted,  if  your  favorable  inclination  assists  me. 
Wherefore,  whatever  I  have  undertaken  in  this  cause,  O 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PROPOSED  MANILIAN  LAW       197 

Romans,  I  assure  you  that  I  have  undertaken  wholly  for  the  sake 
of  the  republic;  and  I  am  so  far  from  thinking  that  I  have  gained 
by  it  the  favor  of  any  influential  man,  that  I  know,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  I  have  brought  on  myself  many  enmities,  some  secret, 
some  undisguised,  which  I  never  need  have  incurred,  and  which 
yet  will  not  be  mischievous  to  you.  But  I  have  considered  that 
I,  invested  with  my  present  honors,  and  loaded  with  so  many 
kindnesses  from  you,  ought  to  prefer  your  inclination,  and  the 
dignity  of  the  republic,  and  the  safety  of  our  provinces  and  allies, 
to  all  considerations  of  my  own  private  interest. 


SPEECH 

IN  DEFENCE  OF 
TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO 


THE  ARGUMENT 

Titus  Annius  Milo,  often  in  the  following  speech  called  only  Titus 
Annius,  stood  for  the  consulship  while  Clodius  was  a  candidate  for 
the  praetorship,  and  daily  quarrels  took  place  in  the  streets  between 
their  armed  retainers  and  gladiators.  Milo,  who  was  dictator  of 
Lanuvium,  his  native  place,  was  forced  to  go  thither  to  appoint  some 
priests,  etc. ;  and  Clodius,  who  had  been  to  Africa,  met  him  on  his 
road.  Milo  was  in  his  carriage  with  his  wife,  and  was  accompanied 
by  a  numerous  retinue,  among  whom  were  some  gladiators.  Clodius 
was  on  horseback,  with  about  thirty  armed  men.  The  followers  of 
each  began  to  fight,  and  when  the  tumult  had  become  general,  Clodius 
was  slain,  probably  by  Milo  himself.  The  disturbances  at  Rome  be- 
came so  formidable  that  Pompey  was  created  sole  consul;  and  soon 
after  he  entered  on  his  office,  A.u.c.  702,  Milo  was  brought  to  trial. 
This  speech,  however,  though  composed  by  Cicero,  was  not  spoken, 
for  he  was  so  much  alarmed  by  the  violence  of  Clodius's  friends,  that 
he  did  not  dare  to  use  the  plain  language  he  had  proposed.  Milo 
was  convicted  and  banished  to  Marseilles. 


200 


SPEECH 
IN   DEFENCE   OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO 

ALTHOUGH  I  am  afraid,  O  judges,  that  it  is  a  base  thing 
for  one  who  is  beginning  to  speak  for  a  very  brave  man 
to  be  alarmed,  and  though  it  is  far  from  becoming,  when 
Titus  Annius  Milo  himself  is  more  disturbed  for  the  safety  of 
the  republic  than  for  his  own,  that  I  should  not  be  able  to  bring 
to  the  cause  a  similar  greatness  of  mind,  yet  this  novel  appear- 
ance of  a  new  J  manner  of  trial  alarms  my  eyes,  which,  wherever 
they  fall,  seek  for  the  former  customs  of  the  forum  and  the  an- 
cient practice  in  trials.  For  your  assembly  is  not  surrounded 
by  a  -circle  of  by-standers  as  usual ;  we  are  not  attended  by  our 
usual  company.2 

For  those  guards  which  you  behold  in  front  of  all  the  temples, 
although  they  are  placed  there  as  a  protection  against  violence, 
yet  they  bring  no  aid  to  the  orator;  so  that  even  in  the  forum 
and  in  the  court  of  justice  itself,  although  we  are  protected  with 
all  salutary  and  necessary  defences,  yet  we  cannot  be  entirely 
without  fear.  But  if  I  thought  this  adverse  to  Milo,  I  should 
yield  to  the  times,  O  judges,  and  among  such  a  crowd  of  armed 
men,  I  should  think  there  was  no  room  for  an  orator.  But  the 
wisdom  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  a  most  wise  and  just  man,  strength- 
ens and  encourages  me;  who  would  certainly  neither  think  it 
suitable  to  his  justice  to  deliver  that  man  up  to  the  weapons  of 
the  soldiery  whom  he  had  given  over  as  an  accused  person  to 
the  decision  of  the  judges,  nor  suitable  to  his  wisdom  to  arm 
the  rashness  of  an  excited  multitude  with  public  authority. 

So  that  those  arms,  those  centurions,  those  cohorts,  do  not 
announce  danger  to  us,  but  protection ;  nor  do  they  expect  us 

1  This  was  an  extraordinary  trial,  held  a  Pompey    was    present    at    the    trial, 

under  a  new  law  just  passed  by   Pom-  surrounded   by  his  officers,  and  he  had 

pey;  and  it  was  presided  over,   not  by  filled    the    forum    and    all    its    precincts 

the    praetor,    but    by    Lucius    Domitius  with  armed  men,  for  the  sake  of  kecp- 

Ahenobarbus,    who    was    expressly    ap-  ing  the  peace, 
pointed  by  the  comitia  president  of  the 
judges  on  this  occasion. 


201 


202  CICERO 

only  to  be  calm,  but  even  to  be  courageous;  nor  do  they  prom- 
ise only  assistance  to  my  defense,  but  also  silence.  And  the  rest 
of  the  multitude,  which  consists  of  citizens,  is  wholly  ours;  nor 
is  there  any  one  individual  among  those  whom  you  see  from  this 
place  gazing  upon  us  from  all  sides  from  which  any  part  of  the 
forum  can  be  seen,  and  watching  the  result  of  this  trial,  who, 
while  he  favors  the  virtue  of  Milo,  does  not  think  that  this  day  in 
reality  his  own  interests,  those  of  his  children,  his  country,  and 
his  fortunes,  are  at  stake. 

There  is  one  class  adverse  and  hostile  to  us — those  whom  the 
madness  of  Publius  Clodius  has  fed  on  rapine,  on  conflagration, 
and  on  every  sort  of  public  disaster;  and  who  were,  even  in  the 
assembly  held  yesterday,  exhorted3  to  teach  you,  by  their  clamor, 
what  you  were  to  decide.  But  such  shouts,  if  any  reached  you, 
should  rather  warn  you  to  retain  him  as  a  citizen  who  has  always 
slighted  that  class  of  men,  and  their  greatest  clamor,  in  com- 
parison with  your  safety.  Wherefore,  be  of  good  courage,  O 
judges,  and  lay  aside  your  alarm,  if  indeed  you  feel  any ;  for  if 
ever  you  had  to  decide  about  good  and  brave  men,  and  about 
citizens  who  had  deserved  well  of  their  country,  if  ever  an  oppor- 
tunity was  given  to  chosen  men  of  the  most  honorable  ranks  to 
show  by  their  deeds  and  resolutions  that  disposition  toward 
brave  and  good  citizens  which  they  had  often  declared  by  their 
looks  and  by  their  words,  all  that  power  you  now  have,  when 
you  are  to  determine  whether  we  who  have  always  been  wholly 
devoted  to  your  authority  are  to  be  miserable,  and  to  mourn  for- 
ever, or  whether,  having  been  long  harassed  by  the  most  aban- 
doned citizens,  we  shall  at  length  be  reprieved  and  set  up  again 
by  you,  your  loyalty,  your  virtue,  and  your  wisdom. 

For  what,  O  judges,  is  more  full  of  labor  than  we  both  are, 
what  can  be  either  expressed  or  imagined  more  full  of  anxiety 
and  uneasiness  than  we  are,  who  being  induced  to  devote  our- 
selves to  the  republic  by  the  hope  of  the  most  honorable  rewards, 
yet  cannot  be  free  from  the  fear  of  the  most  cruel  punishments  ? 
I  have  always  thought  indeed  that  Milo  had  to  encounter  the 
other  storms  and  tempests  in  these  billows  of  the  assemblies  be- 
cause he  always  espoused  the  cause  of  the  good  against  the  bad ; 
but  in  a  court  of  justice,  and  in  that  council  in  which  the  most 

8  Munatius   Plancus,   the   day   before,  had  exhorted  the  people  not  to  suffer 
Milo  to  escape. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     203 

honorable  men  of  all  ranks  are  sitting  as  judges,  I  never  imag- 
ined that  Milo's  enemies  could  have  any  hope  of  diminishing 
his  glory  by  the  aid  of  such  men,  much  less  of  at  all  injuring  his 
safety. 

Although  in  this  cause,  O  judges,  we  shall  not  employ  the 
tribuneship  of  Titus  Annius,  and  all  the  exploits  which  he  has 
performed  for  the  safety  of  the  republic,  as  topics  for  our  de- 
fence against  this  accusation,  unless  you  see  with  your  own  eyes 
that  a  plot  was  laid  against  Milo  by  Clodius;  and  we  shall  not 
entreat  you  to  pardon  us  this  one  offence  in  consideration  of  our 
many  eminent  services  to  the  republic,  nor  shall  we  demand,  if 
the  death  of  Publius  Qodius  was  your  safety,  that  on  that  ac-  ' 
count  you  should  attribute  it  rather  to  the  virtue  of  Milo,  than  to 
the  good  fortune  of  the  Roman  people ;  but  if  his  plots  are  made 
clearer  than  the  day,  then  indeed  I  shall  entreat,  and  shall  de- 
mand of  you,  O  judges,  that,  if  we  have  lost  everything  else,  this 
at  least  may  be  left  us — namely,  the  privilege  of  defending  our 
lives  from  the  audacity  and  weapons  of  our  enemies  with  im- 
punity. 

But  before  I  come  to  that  part  of  my  speech  which  especially 
belongs  to  this  trial,  it  seems  necessary  to  refute  those  things 
which  have  been  often  said,  both  in  the  Senate  by  our  enemies, 
and  in  the  assembly  of  the  people  by  wicked  men,  and  lately, 
too,  by  our  prosecutors ;  so  that  when  every  cause  of  alarm  is  re- 
moved, you  may  be  able  distinctly  to  see  the  matter  which  is  the 
subject  of  this  trial.  They  say  that  that  man  ought  no  longer 
to  see  the  light  who  confesses  that  another  man  has  been  slain 
by  him.  In  what  city,  then,  are  these  most  foolish  men  using 
this  argument?  In  this  one,  forsooth,  where  the  first  trial  for  a 
man's  life  took  place  at  all  was  that  of  Marcus  Horatius,  a  most 
brave  man,  who  even  before  the  city  was  free  was  yet  acquitted 
by  the  assembly  of  the  Roman  people,  though  he  avowed  that 
his  sister  had  been  slain  by  his  hand. 

Is  there  anyone  who  does  not  know,  that  when  inquiry  is 
made  into  the  slaying  of  a  man,  it  is  usual  either  altogether  to 
deny  that  the  deed  has  been  done,  or  else  to  defend  it  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  rightly  and  lawfully  done?  unless,  indeed,  you 
think  that  Publius  Africanus  was  out  of  his  mind,  who,  when  he 
was  asked  in  a  seditious  spirit  by  Caius  Carbo,  a  tribune  of  the 
people,  what  was  his  opinion  of  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus, 


204  CICERO 

answered  that  he  seemed  to  have  been  rightly  slain.  For 
neither  could  Servilius  Ahala,  that  eminent  man,  nor  Publius 
Nasica,  nor  Lucius  Opimius,  nor  Caius  Marius,  nor  indeed  the 
Senate  itself  during  my  consulship,  have  been  accounted  any- 
thing but  wicked,  if  it  was  unlawful  for  wicked  citizens  to  be  put 
to  death.  And  therefore,  O  judges,  it  was  not  without  good 
reason,  that  even  in  legendary  fables  learned  men  have  handed 
down  the  story,  that  he,  who  for  the  sake  of  avenging  his  father 
had  killed  his  mother,  when  the  opinions  of  men  varied,  was  ac- 
quitted not  only  by  the  voices  of  the  gods,  but  even  by  the  very 
wisest  goddess.  And  if  the  Twelve  Tables  have  permitted  that 
a  nightly  robber  may  be  slain  anyway,  but  a  robber  by  day  if  he 
defends  himself,  writh  a  weapon,  who  is  there  who  can  think  a 
man  to  be  punished  for  slaying  another,  in  whatever  way  he  is 
slain,  when  he  sees  that  sometimes  a  swrord  to  kill  a  man  with  is 
put  into  our  hands  by  the  very  laws  themselves? 

But  if  there  be  any  occasion  on  which  it  is  proper  to  slay  a 
man — and  there  are  many  such — surely  that  occasion  is  not  only 
a  just  one,  but  even  a  necessary  one  when  violence  is  offered,  and 
can  only  be  repelled  by  violence.  When  a  military  tribune 
offered  violence  to  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  Caius  Marius,  the 
kinsman  of  that  commander  was  slain  by  the  man  whom  he  was 
insulting;  for  the  virtuous  youth  chose  to  act,  though  with  dan- 
ger, rather  than  to  suffer  infamously;  and  his  illustrious  com- 
mander acquitted  him  of  all  guilt,  and  treated  him  well.  But 
what  death  can  be  unjust  when  inflicted  on  a  secret  plotter  and 
robber? 

What  is  the  meaning  of  our  retinues,  what  of  our  swords? 
Surely  it  would  never  be  permitted  to  us  to  have  them  if  we 
might  never  use  them.  This,  therefore,  is  a  law,  O  judges,  not 
written,  but  born  with  us — which  we  have  not  learned,  or  re- 
ceived by  tradition,  or  read,  but  which  we  have  taken  and 
sucked  in  and  imbibed  from  nature  herself;  a  law  which  we  were 
not  taught,  but  to  which  we  were  made — which  we  were  not 
trained  in,  but  which  is  ingrained  in  us — namely,  that  if  our  life 
be  in  danger  from  plots,  or  from  open  violence,  or  from  the 
weapons  of  robbers  or  enemies,  every  means  of  securing  our 
safety  is  honorable.  For  laws  are  silent  when  arms  are  raised, 
and  do  not  expect  themselves  to  be  waited  for,  when  he  who 
waits  will  have  to  suffer  an  undeserved  penalty  before  he  can 
exact  a  merited  punishment. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO    265 

The  law  very  wisely,  and  in  a  manner  silently,  gives  a  man  a 
right  to  defend  himself,  and  does  not  merely  forbid  a  man  to  be 
slain,  but  forbids  anyone  to  have  a  weapon  about  him  with  the 
object  of  slaying  a  man;  so  that,  as  the  object,  and  not  the 
weapon  itself,  is  made  the  subject  of  the  inquiry,  the  man  who 
had  used  a  weapon  with  the  object  of  defending  himself  would 
be  decided  not  to  have  had  his  weapon  about  him  with  the  object 
of  killing  a  man.  Let,  then,  this  principle  be  remembered  by 
you  in  this  trial,  O  judges;  for  I  do  not  doubt  that  I  shall  make 
good  my  defence  before  you,  if  you  only  remember — what  you 
cannot  forget — that  a  plotter  against  one  may  be  lawfully  slain. 

The  next  point  is  one  which  is  often  asserted  by  the  enemies 
of  Milo,  who  say  that  the  Senate  has  decided  that  the  slaughter 
by  which  Publius  Clodius  fell  was  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the 
republic.  But,  in  fact,  the  Senate  has  approved,  not  merely  by 
their  votes,  but  even  zealously.  For  how  often  has  that  cause 
been  pleaded  by  us  in  the  Senate  ?  with  what  great  assent  of  the 
whole  body  ?  and  that  no  silent  nor  concealed  assent ;  for  when 
in  a  very  full  Senate  were  there  ever  four  or  five  men  found  who 
did  not  espouse  Milo's  cause  ?  Those  lifeless  assemblies  of  this 
nearly  burnt  4  tribune  of  the  people  show  the  fact ;  assemblies  in 
which  he  daily  used  to  try  and  bring  my  power  into  unpopularity, 
by  saying  that  the  Senate  did  not  pass  its  decrees  according  to 
what  it  thought  itself,  but  as  I  chose. 

And  if  indeed  that  ought  to  be  called  power  rather  than  a 
moderate  influence  in  a  righteous  cause  on  account  of  great  ser- 
vices done  to  the  republic,  or  some  popularity  among  the  good 
on  account  of  dutiful  labors  for  its  sake,  let  it  be  called  so,  as 
long  as  we  employ  it  for  the  safety  of  the  good  in  opposition  to 
the  madness  of  the  wicked. 

But  this  investigation,  though  it  is  not  an  unjust  one,  yet  is 
not  one  which  the  Senate  thought  ought  to  be  ordered ;  for  there 
were  regular  laws  and  forms  of  trial  for  murder,  or  for  assault ; 
nor  did  the  death  of  Publius  Clodius  cause  the  Senate  such  con- 
cern and  sorrow  that  any  new  process  of  investigation  need  have 
been  appointed ;  for  when  the  Senate  had  had  the  power  of  de- 

4  After     Clodius's     death,     Munatius  made  a  pile  of  the  seats  to  burn  it,  in 

Plancus,  the  tribune,  exposed  his  body  doing    which    they    burnt    the    Senate- 

on  the  rostrum,  and  harangued  the  peo-  house,    and    Plancus    himself   with    dif- 

ple  against  Milo;   the  populace  carried  ficulty  escaped, 
the    body    into    the    senate-house,    and 


206  CICERO 

creeing  a  trial  in  the  matter  of  that  impious  pollution  of  which 
he  was  guilty  taken  from  it,  who  can  believe  it  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  appoint  a  new  form  of  trial  about  his  death?  Why  then 
did  the  Senate  decide  that  this  burning  of  the  senate-house,  this 
siege  laid  to  the  house  of  M.  Lepidus,  and  this  very  homicide, 
had  taken  place  contrary  to  the  interest  of  the  republic?  Why, 
because  no  violence  from  one  citizen  to  another  can  ever  take 
place  in  a  free  state  which  is  not  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the 
republic.  For  the  defending  of  one's  self  against  violence  is 
never  a  thing  to  be  wished  for ;  but  it  is  sometimes  necessary, 
unless,  indeed,  one  could  say  that  that  day  on  which  Tiberius 
Gracchus  was  slain,  or  that  day  when  Caius  was,  or  the  day 
when  the  arms  of  Saturnius  were  put  down,  even  if  they  ended 
as  the  welfare  of  the  republic  demanded,  were  yet  no  wound  and 
injury  to  the  republic. 

Therefore  I  myself  voted,  when  it  was  notorious  that  a  homi- 
cide had  taken  place  on  the  Appian  road,  not  that  he  who  had 
defended  himself  had  acted  in  a  manner  contrary  to  the  interests 
of  the  republic;  but  as  there  was  violence  and  treachery  in  the 
business,  I  reserved  the  charge  for  trial,  I  expressed  my  disap- 
probation of  the  business.  And  if  the  Senate  had  not  been  hin- 
dered by  that  frantic  tribune  from  executing  its  wishes,  we 
should  not  now  have  this  novel  trial.  For  the  Senate  voted  that 
an  extraordinary  investigation  should  take  place  according  to 
the  ancient  laws.  A  division  took  place,  it  does  not  signify  on 
whose  motion,  for  it  is  not  necessary  to  mention  the  worthless- 
ness  of  everyone,  and  so  the  rest  of  the  authority  of  the  Senate 
was  destroyed  by  this  corrupt  intercession. 

"  Oh,  but  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  by  his  bill,  gave  his  decision 
both  about  the  fact  and  about  the  cause.  For  he  brought  in 
a  bill  about  the  homicide  which  had  taken  place  on  the  Appian 
road,  in  which  Publius  Clodius  was  slain."  What  then  did  he 
propose  ?  That  an  inquiry  should  be  made.  What  is  to  be  in- 
quired about?  Whether  it  was  committed?  That  is  clear.  By 
whom  ?  That  is  notorious.  He  saw  that  a  defence  as  to  the  law 
and  right  could  be  undertaken,  even  at  the  very  moment  of  the 
confession  of  the  act.  But  if  he  had  not  seen  that  he  who  con- 
fessed might  yet  be  acquitted,  when  he  saw  that  we  did  not  con- 
fess the  fact,  he  would  never  have  ordered  an  investigation  to 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO    207 

take  place,  nor  would  he  have  given  you  at  this  trial  the  power  5 
of  acquitting  as  well  as  that  of  condemning.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  Cnaeus  Pompeius  not  only  delivered  no  decision  at  all 
unfavorable  to  Milo,  but  that  he  also  pointed  out  what  you 
ought  to  turn  your  attention  to  in  deciding.  For  he  who  did  not 
assign  a  punishment  to  the  confession,  but  required  a  defence 
of  it,  he  clearly  thought  that  what  was  inquired  into  was  the 
cause  of  the  death,  and  not  the  mere  fact  of  the  death.  Now  he 
himself  shall  tell  us  whether  what  he  did  of  his  own  accord  was 
done  out  of  regard  for  Publius  Clodius,  or  from  a  compliance 
with  the  times. 

A  most  noble  man,  a  bulwark,  and  in  those  times,  indeed, 
almost  a  protector  of  the  Senate,  the  uncle  of  this  our  judge, 
of  that  most  fearless  man  Marcus  Cato,  Marcus  Drusus,  a  trib- 
une of  the  people,  was  slain  in  his  own  house.  The  people  had 
never  any  reference  made  to  them  in  the  matter  of  his  death, 
no  investigation  was  voted  by  the  Senate.  What  great  grief 
was  there,  as  we  have  heard  from  our  forefathers  in  this  city, 
when  that  attack  was  made  by  night  on  Publius  Africanus, 
while  sleeping  in  his  own  house !  Who  was  there  then  who 
did  not  groan,  who  did  not  burn  with  indignation,  that  men 
should  not  have  waited  even  for  the  natural  and  inevitable 
death  of  that  man  whom,  if  possible,  all  would  have  wished 
to  be  immortal  ? 

Was  there,  then,  any  extraordinary  investigation  into  the 
death  of  Africanus8  voted?  Certainly  none.  Why  so?  Be- 
cause the  crime  of  murder  is  not  different  when  eminent  men,  or 
when  obscure  ones  are  slain.  Let  there  be  a  difference  be- 
tween the  dignity  of  the  lives  of  the  highest  and  lowest  citizens. 
If  their  death  be  wrought  by  wickedness,  that  must  be  avenged 
by  the  same  laws  and  punishments  in  either  case ;  unless,  indeed, 
he  be  more  a  parricide  who  murders  a  father  of  consular  rank 

'  Literally,  "  this  wholesome  letter,  as  bed  without  a  wound.     The  cause  and 

well  as  that  melancholy  one."    The  let-  manner    of    his    death    were    unknown; 

ter  A  was  the  "  wholesome  "  letter,  be-  some  said  it  was  natural ;  some,  that  he 

ing  the  initial  of  absolvo,  I  acquit;  the  had   slain   himself;   some,   that   his  wife 

letter  C  the  melancholy  one,  being  the  Sempronia,  the  sister  of  Gracchus,  had 

initial  of  condemno,  I   condemn.  strangled  him.     His  slaves,  it  was  said, 

•  After  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus,  declared  that  some  strangers  had  been 

Publius    jEmilianus    Africanus     Scipio,  introduced   into  the  house  at  the  back, 

the  conqueror  of  Carthage  and  Numan-  who  had  strangled  him,  and  the  trium- 

tia,    was    known    to    be    hostile    to    the  vir  Carbo  is  generally  believed  to  have 

agrarian  law,   and  threw  every  obstacle  been  the  chief  agent  in  his  murder,  and 

in  the  way  of  it;  his  enemies  gave  out  is  expressly  mentioned  as  the  murderer 

that  he  intended  to  abrogate  it  by  force.  by  Cicero,  Ep.  ad  Q.  Fr.  ii.  3. 
One  morning  he  was  found  dead  in  his 


208  CICERO 

than  he  who  murders  one  of  low  degree ;  or,  as  if  the  death  of 
Publius  Clodius  is  to  be  more  criminal  because  he  was  slain 
among  the  monuments  of  his  ancestors — for  this  is  constantly 
said  by  that  party ;  as  if,  I  suppose,  that  illustrious  Appius  Csecus 
made  that  road,  not  that  the  nation  might  have  a  road  to  use, 
but  that  his  own  posterity  might  have  a  place  in  which  to  rob 
with  impunity. 

Therefore  in  that  same  Appian  road,  when  Publius  Clodius 
had  slain  a  most  accomplished  Roman  knight,  Marcus  Papir- 
ius,  that  crime  was  not  to  be  punished ;  for  a  nobleman  among 
his  own  family  monuments  had  slain  a  Roman  knight.  Now 
what  tragedies  does  the  name  of  that  same  Appian  road 
awaken?  which,  though  nothing  was  said  about  it  formerly, 
when  stained  with  the  murder  of  an  honorable  and  innocent 
man,  is  now  incessantly  mentioned  ever  since  it  has  been  dyed 
with  the  blood  of  a  robber  and  a  parricide.  But  why  do  I 
speak  of  these  things  ?  A  slave  of  Publius  Clodius  was  arrested 
in  the  temple  of  Castor,  whom  he  had  placed  there  to  murder 
Cnaeus  Pompeius ;  the  dagger  was  wrested  from  his  hands  and 
he  confessed  his  design ;  after  that  Pompeius  absented  himself 
from  the  forum,  absented  himself  from  the  Senate,  and  from 
all  public  places ;  he  defended  himself  within  his  own  doors  and 
walls,  not  by  the  power  of  the  laws  and  tribunals. 

Was  any  motion  made  ?  was  any  extraordinary  investigation 
voted  ?  But  if  any  circumstance,  if  any  man,  if  any  occasion 
was  ever  important  enough  for  such  a  step,  certainly  all  these 
things  were  so  in  the  greatest  degree  in  that  cause.  The  as- 
sassin had  been  stationed  in  the  forum,  and  in  the  very  vestibule 
of  the  Senate.  Death  was  being  prepared  for  that  man  on 
whose  life  the  safety  of  the  Senate  depended.  Moreover,  at 
that  crisis  of  the  republic,  when,  if  he  alone  had  died,  not  only 
this  state,  but  all  the  nations  in  the  world  would  have  been 
ruined — unless,  indeed,  the  crime  was  not  to  be  punished  be- 
cause it  was  not  accomplished,  just  as  if  the  execution  of  crimes 
was  chastised  by  the  laws,  and  not  the  intentions  of  men — cer- 
tainly there  was  less  cause  to  grieve,  as  the  deed  was  not  accom- 
plished, but  certainly  not  a  whit  the  less  cause  to  punish.  How 
often,  O  judges,  have  I  myself  escaped  from  the  weapons  and 
from  the  bloody  hands  of  Publius  Clodius !  But  if  my  good 
fortune,  or  that  of  the  republic,  had  not  preserved  me  from 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     209 

them,  who  would  have  proposed  any  investigation  into  my 
death  ? 

But  it  is  foolish  of  us  to  dare  to  compare  Drusus,  Africanus, 
Pompeius,  or  ourselves,  with  Publius  Clodius.  All  these  things, 
were  endurable.  The  death  of  Publius  Clodius  no  one  can  bear 
with  equanimity.  The  Senate  is  in  mourning;  the  knights 
grieve ;  the  whole  state  is  broken  down  as  if  with  age  ;the  munic- 
ipalities are  in  mourning ;  the  colonies  are  bowed  down ;  the 
very  fields  even  regret  so  beneficent,  so  useful,  so  kind-hearted 
a  citizen !  That  was  not  the  cause,  O  judges,  it  was  not  indeed, 
why  Pompeius  thought  an  investigation  ought  to  be  proposed 
by  him ;  but  being  a  man  wise  and  endowed  with  lofty  and  al- 
most divine  intellect,  he  saw  many  things — that  Clodius  was  his 
personal  enemy,  Milo  his  intimate  friend ;  he  feared  that,  if  he 
were  to  rejoice  in  the  common  joy  of  all  men,  the  belief  in  his  re- 
conciliation with  Clodius  would  be  weakened.  He  saw  many 
other  things,  too,  but  this  most  especially — that  in  whatever 
terms  of  severity  he  proposed  the  motion,  still  you  would  decide 
fearlessly.  Therefore,  he  selected  the  very  lights  of  the  most 
eminent  ranks  of  the  state.  He  did  not,  indeed,  as  some  are 
constantly  saying,  exclude  my  friends  in  selecting  the  tribunals ; 
for  neither  did  that  most  just  man  think  of  this,  nor,  when  he 
was  selecting  good  men,  could  he  have  managed  to  do  so,  even 
had  he  wished ;  for  my  influence  would  not  be  limited  by  my 
intimacies,  which  can  never  be  very  extensive,  because  one  can- 
not associate  habitually  with  many  people ;  but,  if  we  have  any 
influence,  we  have  it  on  this  account,  because  the  republic  has 
associated  us  with  the  virtuous ;  and,  when  he  was  selecting  the 
most  excellent  of  them,  and  as  he  thought  that  it  especially 
concerned  his  credit  to  do  so,  he  was  unable  to  avoid  selecting 
men  who  were  well-disposed  toward  me. 

But  as  for  his  especially  appointing  you,  O  Lucius  Domitius, 
to  preside  over  this  investigation,  in  that  he  was  seeking  noth- 
ing except  justice,  dignity,  humanity,  and  good  faith.  He 
passed  a  law  that  it  must  be  a  man  of  consular  dignity,  because, 
I  suppose,  he  considered  the  duty  of  the  men  of  the  highest  rank 
to  resist  both  the  fickleness  of  the  multitude  and  the  rashness 
of  the  profligate ;  and  of  the  men  of  consular  rank  he  selected 
you  above  all ;  for  from  your  earliest  youth  you  had  given  the 
14 


210  CICERO 

most  striking  proofs  how  you  despised  the  madness  of  the 
people. 

Wherefore,  O  judges,  that  we  may  at  last  come  to  the  sub- 
ject of  action  and  the  accusation,  if  it  is  neither  the  case  that  all 
avowal  of  the  deed  is  unprecedented,  nor  that  anything  has  been 
determined  about  our  cause  by  the  Senate  differently  to  what 
we  could  wish ;  and  if  the  proposer  of  the  law  himself  when 
there  was  no  dispute  as  to  the  deed,  yet  thought  that  there 
should  be  a  discussion  as  to  the  law ;  and  if  the  judges  had  been 
chosen,  and  a  man  appointed  to  preside  over  the  investigation, 
to  decide  these  matters  justly  and  wisely ;  it  follows,  O  judges, 
that  you  have  now  nothing  else  to  inquire  into  but  which  plot- 
ted against  the  other ;  and  that  you  may  the  more  easily  discern 
this,  attend  carefully,  I  entreat  you,  while  I  briefly  explain  to 
you  the  matter  as  it  occurred. 

When  Publius  Clodius  had  determined  to  distress  the  repub- 
lic by  all  sorts  of  wickedness  during  his  prsetorship,  and  saw 
that  the  comitia  were  so  delayed  the  year  before,  that  he  would 
not  be  able  to  continue  his  praetorship  many  months,  as  he 
had  no  regard  to  the  degree  of  honor,  as  others  have,  but  both 
wished  to  avoid  having  Lucius  Paullus,  a  citizen  of  singular 
virtue,  for  his  colleague,  and  also  to  have  an  entire  year  to  man- 
gle the  republic ;  on  a  sudden  he  abandoned  his  own  year,  and 
transferred  himself  to  the  next  year,  not  from  any  religious 
scruple,  but  that  he  might  have,  as  he  said  himself,  a  full  and 
entire  year  to  act  as  praetor,  that  is,  to  overthrow  the  republic. 

It  occurred  to  him  that  his  praetorship  would  be  crippled  and 
powerless,  if  Milo  was  consul ;  and,  moreover,  he  saw  that  he 
was  being  made  consul  with  the  greatest  unanimity  of  the 
Roman  people.  He  betook  himself  to  his  competitors,  but  in 
such  a  manner  that  he  alone  managed  the  whole  election,  even 
against  their  will — that  he  supported  on  his  own  shoulders,  as 
he  used  to  say,  the  whole  comitia — he  convoked  the  tribes — he 
interposed — he  erected  a  new  Colline  tribe  by  the  enrollment 
of  the  most  worthless  of  the  citizens.  In  proportion  as  the  one 
caused  greater  confusion,  so  did  the  other  acquire  additional 
power  every  day.  When  the  fellow,  prepared  for  every  atroc- 
ity, saw  that  a  most  brave  man,  his  greatest  enemy,  was  a  most 
certain  consul,  and  that  that  was  declared,  not  only  by  the  con- 
versation of  the  Roman  people,  but  also  by  their  votes,  he  began 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     211 

to  act  openly,  and  to  say  without  disguise  that  Milo  must  be 
slain. 

He  had  brought  down  from  the  Apennines  rustic  and  barba- 
rian slaves,  whom  you  saw,  with  whom  he  had  ravaged  the  pub- 
lic woods  and  Etrnria.  The  matter  was  not  concealed  at  all. 
In  truth,  he  used  to  say  undisguisedly  that  the  consulship  could 
,  not  be  taken  from  Milo,  but  that  life  could.  He  often  hinted  as 
much  in  the  Senate ;  he  said  it  plainly  in  the  public  assembly. 
Besides,  when  Favonius,  a  brave  man,  asked  him  what  he  hoped 
for  by  giving  way  to  such  madness  while  Milo  was  alive?  he 
answered  him,  that  in  three,  or  at  most  in  four  days,  he  would 
be  dead.  And  this  saying  of  his  Favonius  immediately  report- 
ed to  Marcus  Cato,  who  is  here  present. 

In  the  mean  time,  as  Clodius  knew — and  it  was  not  hard  to 
know  it — that  Milo  was  forced  to  take  a  yearly,  legitimate,  nec- 
essary journey  on  the  twentieth  of  January  to  Lanuvium  to 
appoint  a  priest,7  because  Milo  was  dictator  of  Lanuvium,  on  a 
sudden  he  himself  left  Rome  the  day  before,  in  order  (as  was 
seen  by  the  event)  to  lay  in  ambush  for  Milo  in  front  of  his 
farm  ;  and  he  departed,  so  that  he  was  not  present  at  a  turbulent 
assembly  in  which  his  madness  was  greatly  missed,  and  which 
was  held  that  very  day,  and  from  which  he  never  would  have 
been  absent,  if  he  had  not  desired  to  avail  himself  of  the  place 
and  opportunity  for  a  crime. 

But  Milo,  as  he  had  been  that  day  in  the  Senate  till  it  was 
dismissed,  came  home,  changed  his  shoes  and  his  garments, 
waited  a  little,  as  men  do,  while  his  wife  was  getting  ready,  and 
then  started  at  the  time  when  Clodius  might  have  returned,  if, 
'indeed,  he  had  been  coming  to  Rome  that  day.  Clodius  meets 
him  unencumbered  on  horseback,  with  no  carriage,  with  no 
baggage,  with  no  Greek  companions,  as  he  was  used  to,  without 
his  wife,  which  was  scarcely  ever  the  case ;  while  this  plotter, 
who  had  taken,  forsooth,  that  journey  for  the  express  purpose 
of  murder,  was  driving  with  his  wife  in  a  carriage,  in  a  heavy 
travelling  cloak,  with  abundant  baggage,  and  a  delicate  com- 
pany of  women,  and  maid  servants,  and  boys.  He  meets  Clo- 
dius in  front  of  his  farm,  about  the  eleventh  hour,  or  not  far 
from  it.  Immediately  a  number  of  men  attack  him  from  the 
higher  ground  with  missile  weapons.  The  men  who  are  in 

T  It  was  the  priest  of  Juno  Sospita,  who  was  the  patroness  of  Lanuvium. 


212  CICERO 

front  kill  his  driver,  and  when  he  had  jumped  down  from  his 
chariot  and  flung  aside  his  cloak,  and  while  he  was  defending 
himself  with  vigorous  courage,  the  men  who  were  with  Clodius 
drew  their  swords,  and  some  of  them  ran  back  toward  his  char- 
iot in  order  to  attack  Milo  from  behind,  and  some,  because  they 
thought  that  he  was  already  slain,  began  to  attack  his  servants 
who  were  behind  him ;  and  those  of  the  servants  who  had  pres- 
ence of  mind  to  defend  themselves,  and  were  faithful  to  their 
master,  were  some  of  them  slain,  and  the  others,  when  they  saw 
a  fierce  battle  taking  place  around  the  chariot,  and  as  they  were 
prevented  from  getting  near  their  master  so  as  to  succor  him, 
when  they  heard  Clodius  himself  proclaim  that  Milo  was  slain, 
and  they  thought  that  it  was  really  true,  they,  the  servants  of 
Milo  (I  am  not  speaking  for  the  purpose  of  shifting  the  guilt 
onto  the  shoulders  of  others,  but  I  am  saying  what  really  oc- 
curred) did,  without  their  master  either  commanding  it,  or 
knowing  it,  or  even  being  present  to  see  it,  what  everyone  would 
have  wished  his  servants  to  do  in  a  similar  case. 

These  things  were  all  done,  O  judges,  just  as  I  have  related 
them.  The  man  who  laid  the  plot  was  defeated ;  violence  was 
defeated  by  violence;  or,  I  should  rather  say,  audacity  was 
crushed  by  valor.  I  say  nothing  about  what  the  republic,  noth- 
ing about  what  you,  nothing  about  what  all  good  men  gained 
by  the  result.  I  do  not  desire  it  to  be  any  advantage  to  me  to 
hear  that  he  was  born  with  such  a  destiny  that  he  was  unable 
even  to  save  himself,  without  at  the  same  time  saving  the  repub- 
lic and  all  of  you.  If  he  had  not  a  right  to  do  so,  then  I  have 
nothing  which  I  can  urge  in  his  defence.  But  if  both  reason 
has  taught  this  lesson  to  learned  men,  and  necessity  to  barba- 
rians, and  custom  to  all  nations,  and  nature  itself  to  the  beasts, 
that  they  are  at  all  times  to  repel  all  violence  by  whatever  means 
they  can  from  their  persons,  from  their  liberties,  and  from 
their  lives,  then  you  cannot  decide  this  action  to  have  been 
wrong,  without  deciding  at  the  same  time  that  all  men  who  fall 
among  thieves  must  perish,  either  by  their  weapons,  or  by  your 
sentence. 

And  if  he  had  thought  that  this  was  the  law,  it  would  have 
been  preferable  for  Milo  to  offer  his  throat  to  Publius  Clodius — 
which  was  not  attacked  by  him  once  only,  nor  for  the  first  time 
on  that  day — rather  than  now  to  be  destroyed  by  you  because 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     213 

he  did  not  surrender  himself  then  to  be  destroyed  by  him.  But 
if  there  is  no  one  of  you  who  entertains  such  an  opinion  as  that, 
then  the  question  which  arises  for  the  consideration  of  the  court 
is,  not  whether  he  was  slain  or  not,  which  we  admit,  but 
whether  he  was  slain  legally  or  illegally,  which  is  an  inquiry 
which  has  often  been  instituted  in  many  causes.  It  is  quite 
plain  that  a  plot  was  laid ;  and  that  is  a  thing  which  the  Senate 
has  decided  to  be  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  republic.  By 
whom  it  was  laid  is  a  question.  And  on  this  point  an  inquiry 
has  been  ordered  to  be  instituted.  So  the  Senate  has  marked 
its  disapproval  of  the  fact,  not  of  the  man ;  and  Pompeius  has 
appointed  this  inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the  case,  and  not  into 
the  fact  of  its  existence. 

Does,  then,  any  other  point  arise  for  the  decision  of  the  court, 
except  this  one,  Which  laid  a  plot  against  the  other?  None 
whatever.  The  case  comes  before  you  in  this  way,  that  if  Milo 
laid  a  plot  against  Clodius,  then  he  is  not  to  be  let  off  with  im- 
punity. If  Clodius  laid  it  against  Milo,  then  we  are  acquitted 
from  all  guilt. 

How,  then,  are  we  to  prove  that  Clodius  laid  a  plot  against 
Milo  ?  It  is  quite  sufficient  in  the  case  of  such  a  wicked,  of  such 
an  audacious  monster  as  that,  to  prove  that  he  had  great  reason 
to  do  so ;  that  he  had  great  hopes  founded  on  Milo's  death ;  that 
it  would  have  been  of  the  greatest  service  to  him.  Therefore, 
that  maxim  of  Cassius,  to  see  to  whose  advantage  it  was,  may 
well  have  influence  in  respect  of  these  persons.  For  although 
good  men  cannot  be  induced  to  commit  crimes  by  any  advan- 
tage whatever,  wicked  men  often  can  by  a  very  trifling  one.  And, 
if  Milo  were  slain,  Clodius  gained  this,  not  only  that  he  should 
be  praetor  without  having  him  for  a  consul,  under  whom  he 
would  not  be  able  to  commit  any  wickedness,  but  also  that  he 
should  have  those  men  for  consuls  while  he  was  praetor,  who,  if 
they  did  not  aid  him,  would  at  all  events  connive  at  all  his  pro- 
ceedings to  such  an  extent  that  he  hoped  he  should  be  able  to  es- 
cape detection  in  all  the  frantic  actions  which  he  was  contem- 
plating ;  as  they  (so  he  argued  to  himself)  would  not,  even  if  they 
were  able  to  do  so,  be  anxious  to  check  his  attempts  when  they 
considered  that  they  were  under  such  obligations  to  him  ;and  on 
the  other  hand,  if  they  did  wish  to  do  so,  perhaps  they  would 
hardly  be  able  to  crush  the  audacity  of  that  most  wicked  man 


2i4  CICERO 

when  it  got  strength  by  its  long  continuance.  Are  you,  O  judges, 
the  only  persons  ignorant  of  all  this  ?  Are  you  living  in  this  city 
as  ignorant  of  what  passes  as  if  you  were  visitors  ?  Are  your 
ears  all  abroad,  do  they  keep  aloof  from  all  the  ordinary  topics 
of  conversation  of  the  city,  as  to  what  laws  (if,  indeed,  they  are 
to  be  called  laws,  and  not  rather  firebrands  to  destroy  the  city, 
pestilences  to  annihilate  the  republic)  that  man  was  intending 
to  impose  upon  all  of  us,  to  brand  on  our  foreheads  ?  Exhibit, 
I  beg  you,  Sextus  Clodius,  produce,  I  beg,  that  copy  of  your 
laws  which  they  say  that  you  saved  from  your  house,  and  from 
the  middle  of  the  armed  band  which  threatened  you  by  night, 
and  bore  aloft,  like  another  palladium,  in  order,  forsooth,  to  be 
able  to  carry  that  splendid  present,  that  instrument  for  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  the  tribuneship,  to  someone,  if  you  could 
obtain  his  election,  who  would  discharge  those  duties  according 
to  your  directions.  And  he  was  going  to  divide  the  freed- 
men  among  all  the  tribes,  and  by  his  new  law  to  add  all  the 
slaves  who  were  going  to  be  emancipated,  but  who  had  not  yet 
received  their  freedom,  so  that  they  might  vote  equally  with  the 
free  citizens].8 

Would  he  have  dared  to  make  mention  of  this  law,  which 
Sextus  Clodius  boasts  was  devised  by  him,  while  Milo  was 
alive,  not  to  say  while  he  was  consul?  For  all  of  us — I  can- 
not venture  to  say  all  that  I  was  going  to  say.  But  do  you  con- 
sider what  enormous  faults  the  law  itself  must  have  had,  when 
the  mere  mention  of  it,  for  the  purpose  of  finding  fault  with  it, 
is  so  offensive.  And  he  looked  at  me  with  the  expression  of 
countenance  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  putting  on  when  he 
was  threatening  everybody  with  every  sort  of  calamity.  That 
light  of  the  senate-house  moves  me.8 

What  ?  do  you  suppose,  O  Sextus,  that  I  am  angry  with  you  ; 
I,  whose  greatest  enemy  you  have  punished  with  even  much 
greater  severity  than  my  humanity  could  resolve  to  demand? 
You  cast  the  bloody  carcass  of  Publius  Clodius  out  of  the  house, 
you  threw  it  out  into  the  public  street,  you  left  it  destitute  of  all 
images,  of  all  funeral  rites,  of  all  funeral  pomp,  of  all  funeral 
panegyric,  half  consumed  by  a  lot  of  miserable  logs,  to  be  torn 

8  The   passage   in   brackets   is   a   very  8  Cicero  here  supposes  Sextus  Clodius 

doubtful  supplement  of  Beier;  which,  to  look  menacingly  at  him,  in  order  to 
however,  Orellius  prefers  to  any  other.  check  him  in  his  attack  on  this  intended 

law. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO    215 

to  pieces  by  the  dogs  who  nightly  prowl  about  the  streets. 
Wherefore,  although  in  so  doing  you  acted  most  impiously, 
still  you  were  wreaking  all  your  cruelty  on  my  enemy ;  though 
I  cannot  praise  you,  I  certainly  ought  not  to  be  angry  with 
you. 

[I  have  demonstrated  now,  O  judges,  of  what  great  conse- 
quence it  was  to  Clodius]  that  Milo  should  be  slain.  Now  turn 
your  attention  to  Milo.  What  advantage  could  it  be  to  Milo 
that  Clodius  should  be  slain?  What  reason  was  there  why 
Milo,  I  will  not  say  should  do  such  an  action,  but  should  even 
wish  for  his  death?  Oh,  Clodius  was  an  obstacle  to  Mile's 
hope  of  obtaining  the  consulship.  But  he  was  obtaining  it  in 
spite  of  him.  Ay,  I  might  rather  say  he  was  obtaining  it  all  the 
more  because  Clodius  was  opposing  him ;  nor  in  fact  was  I  a 
more  efficient  support  to  him  than  Clodius  was.  The  recollec- 
tion, O  judges,  of  the  services  which  Milo  had  done  to  me  and 
to  the  republic  had  weight  with  you.  My  entreaties  and  my 
tears,  with  which  I  perceived  at  that  time  that  you  were  greatly 
moved,  had  weight  with  you ;  but  still  more  weight  had  your 
own  fear  of  the  dangers  which  were  impending.  For  who  of 
the  citizens  was  there  who  could  turn  his  eyes  to  the  unre- 
strained praetorship  of  Publius  Clodius,  without  feeling  the 
greatest  dread  of  a  revolution  ?  and  unrestrained  you  saw  that  it 
would  be  unless  you  had  a  consul  who  had  both  courage  and 
power  to  restrain  him ;  and  as  the  whole  Roman  people  saw  that 
Milo  alone  was  that  man,  who  could  hesitate  by  his  vote  to  re- 
lease himself  from  fear,  and  the  republic  from  danger  ? 

But  now,  now  that  Clodius  is  removed,  Milo  has  got  to  labor 
by  more  ordinary  practices  to  preserve  his  dignity.  That  pre- 
eminent glory,  which  was  then  attributed  to  him  alone,  and 
which  was  daily  increasing  in  consequence  of  his  efforts  to  re- 
press the  frenzy  of  Clodius,  has  been  put  an  end  to  by  the  death 
of  Clodius.  You  have  gained  your  object  of  being  no  longer 
afraid  of  any  one  of  the  citizens  ;  he  has  lost  that  incessant  arena 
for  his  valor,  that  which  procured  him  votes  for  the  consulship, 
that  ceaseless  and  ever-springing  fountain  of  his  glory.  There- 
fore, Mile's  canvass  for  the  consulship,  which  could  not  be  hin- 
dered from  prospering  while  Clodius  was  alive,  now,  the  mo- 
ment that  he  is  dead,  is  attempted  to  be  checked.  So  that  the 
death  of  Clodius  is  not  only  no  advantage,  but  is  even  a  positive 
injury  to  Milo. 


216  CICERO 

"  Oh,  but  his  hatred  prevailed  with  him ;  he  slew  him  in  a 
passion ;  he  slew  him  because  he  was  his  enemy ;  he  acted  as  the 
avenger  of  his  own  injury;  he  was  exacting  atonement  to  ap- 
pease his  private  indignation."  But  what  will  you  say  if  these 
feelings,  I  do  not  say  existed  in  a  greater  degree  in  Clodius  than 
in  Milo,  but  if  they  existed  in  the  greatest  possible  degree  in  the 
former,  and  not  at  all  in  the  latter  ?  What  will  you  require  be- 
yond that?  For  why  should  Milo  have  hated  Clodius,  the 
material  and  ground-work  of  his  glory,  except  as  far  as  that 
hatred  becoming  a  citizen  goes,  with  which  we  hate  all  worth- 
less men  ?  There  was  plenty  of  reason  for  Clodius  to  hate  Milo, 
first,  as  the  defender  of  my  safety ;  secondly,  as  the  represser  of 
his  frenzy,  the  defeater  of  his  arms ;  and  lastly,  also,  as  his  prose- 
cutor. For  Clodius  was  liable  to  the  prosecution  of  Milo,  ac- 
cording to  the  provisions  of  the  Plotian  law,  as  long  as  he  lived. 
And  with  what  feelings  do  you  suppose  that  that  tyrant  bore 
that?  how  great  do  you  suppose  was  his  hatred  toward  him? 
and,  indeed,  how  reasonable  a  hatred  was  it  for  a  wicked  man 
to  entertain. 

It  remains  for  me  now  to  urg>e  his  natural  disposition  and  his 
habits  of  life  in  the  defence  of  the  one,  and  the  very  same  things 
as  an  accusation  against  the  other.  Clodius,  I  suppose,  had 
never  done  anything  by  violence ;  Milo  had  done  everything  by 
violence.  What,  then,  shall  I  say,  O  judges?  When,  amid 
the  grief  of  all  of  you,  I  departed  from  the  city,  was  I  afraid  of 
the  result  of  a  trial?  was  I  not  afraid  of  slaves,  and  arms  and 
violence  ?  What,  I  pray  you,  was  the  first  ground  of  my  restor- 
ation, except  that  I  had  been  unjustly  driven  out?  Clodius,  I 
suppose,  had  commenced  a  formal  prosecution  against  me ;  he 
had  named  a  sum  as  damages ;  he  had  commenced  an  action  for 
high  treason ;  and,  I  suppose,  too,  I  had  cause  to  fear  your  de- 
cision in  a  cause  which  was  an  unjust  one,  which  was  my  own 
private  cause,  not  one  which  was  a  most  righteous  one,  and 
which  was,  in  reality,  your  cause,  and  not  mine?  No — I  was 
unwilling  that  my  fellow-citizens,  who  had  been  saved  by  my 
prudence  and  by  my  own  personal  danger,  should  be  exposed 
to  the  arms  of  slaves  and  needy  citizens  and  convicted  malefac- 
tors. For  I  saw — I  saw,  I  say,  this  very  Quintus  Hortensius, 
the  light  and  ornament  of  the  republic,  almost  slain  by  the  hand 
of  slaves,  while  he  was  standing  by  me.  In  which  crowd  Caius 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     217 

Vibienus,  a  senator,  a  most  excellent  man,  who  was  with  Hor- 
tensius,  was  so  maltreated  that  he  lost  his  life. 

When,  then,  was  it  that  that  assassin's  dagger  of  his,  which 
he  had  received  from  Catiline,  rested?  It  was  aimed  at  us; 
I  would  not  allow  you  all  to  be  exposed  to  it  for  my  sake.  It 
was  prepared  in  treachery  for  Pompeius.  It  stained  with 
blood,  through  the  murder  of  Papirius,  the  very  Appian  road, 
the  monument  of  his  name ;  this,  this  same  dagger,  after  a  long 
interval  was  again  turned  against  me ;  lately,  as  you  know,  it 
nearly  murdered  me  close  to  the  palace  of  Ancus. 

What  is  there  of  Milo's  conduct  like  all  this  ?  when  all  the  vio- 
lence that  he  has  ever  displayed  has  amounted  to  this,  that  he 
wished  to  prevent  Publius  Clodius  (as  he  could  not  be  brought 
to  trial)  from  oppressing  the  city  by  violence.  And  if  he  wished 
to  put  him  to  death,  what  great,  what  repeated,  and  what  splen- 
did opportunities  he  had  of  doing  so !  Might  he  not  have 
avenged  himself  without  violating  the  law  when  he  was  defend- 
ing his  own  house  and  his  household  gods  from  his  attacks? 
might  he  not  have  done  so  when  that  illustrious  citizen  and 
most  gallant  man,  Publius  Sextius,  his  own  colleague,  was 
wounded  ?  might  he  not  have  done  so  when  that  most  excellent 
man,  Quintus  Fabricius,  while  carrying  a  bill  for  my  restora- 
tion, was  driven  away,  and  when  a  most  cruel  slaughter  was 
taking  place  in  the  forum  ?  Might  he  not  have  done  so  when 
the  house  of  Lucius  Caecilius,  that  most  upright  and  fearless 
praetor  was  attacked  ?  might  he  not  have  done  so  on  the  day  on 
which  the  law  concerning  me  was  passed,  and  when  that  vast 
concourse  of  people  from  all  parts  of  Italy,  whom  a  regard  for 
my  safety  had  roused  up,  would  have  gladly  recognized  and 
adopted  as  its  own  the  glory  of  that  action  ?  so  that,  even  if  Milo 
had  performed  it,  the  whole  state  would  claim  the  praise  of  it 
as  belonging  to  itself? 

And  what  a  time  was  it  ?  A  most  illustrious  and  fearless  con- 
sul, Publius  Lentulus,  an  enemy  to  Clodius,  the  avenger  of  his 
wickedness,  the  bulwark  of  the  Senate,  the  defender  of  your 
inclinations,  the  patron  of  that  general  unanimity,  the  restorer 
of  my  safety ;  seven  praetors,  eight  tribunes  of  the  people,  ad- 
versaries of  him,  defenders  of  me ;  Cnseus  Pompeius,  the  prime 
mover  of  and  chief  agent  in  my  return,  his  open  enemy ;  whose 
opinion  respecting  my  return,  delivered  in  the  most  dignified 


218  CICERO 

and  most  complimentary  language,  the  whole  Senate  adopted ; 
he  who  exhorted  the  whole  Roman  people,  and,  when  he  passed 
a  decree  concerning  me  at  Capua,  gave  himself  the  signal  to  all 
Italy,  which  was  eager  for  it,  and  which  was  imploring  his  good 
faith,  to  join  together  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  me  to  Rome ; 
in  short,  universal  hatred  on  the  part  of  all  the  citizens,  was  ex- 
cited against  him,  while  their  minds  were  inflamed  with  as  ear- 
nest a  regret  for  me ;  so  that  if  anyone  had  slain  him  at  that  time, 
people's  thoughts  would  have  been,  not  how  to  procure  impu- 
nity for  such  a  man,  but  how  to  reward  him  sufficiently. 

Nevertheless,  Milo  restrained  himself,  and  twice  summoned 
Publius  Clodius  before  the  court,  but  never  once  invited  him 
to  a  trial  of  strength  in  scenes  of  violence.  What  do  I  say? 
while  Milo  was  a  private  individual,  and  on  his  trial  before  the 
people,  on  the  accusation  of  Publius  Clodius,  when  an  attack 
was  made  on  Cnseus  Pompeius,  while  speaking  in  defense  of 
Milo,  was  there  not  then  not  only  an  admirable  opportunity  of, 
but  a  reasonable  pretext  for  slaying  him  ?  And  lately,  when 
Marcus  Antonius  had  inspired  all  virtuous  men  with  the  very 
greatest  hope  of  safety,  and  when  he,  being  a  most  noble  young 
man,  had  with  the  greatest  gallantry  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
republic,  and  had  that  beast  almost  in  his  toils  in  spite  of  his 
avoiding  the  snares  of  the  law ;  what  an  opportunity,  what  a 
time  and  place  were  there,  O  ye  immortal  gods!  And  when 
Clodius  had  fled  and  hidden  himself  in  the  darkness  of  the  stairs, 
there  was  a  fine  opportunity  for  Milo  to  slay  him  without  incur- 
ring the  slightest  odium  himself,  and  to  load  Antonius  at  the 
same  time  with  the  greatest  glory!  What?  How  repeatedly 
had  he  a  similar  chance  in  the  comitia !  when  he  had  broken  into 
the  voting  booth,  and  contrived  to  have  swords  drawn  and 
stones  thrown,  and  then  on  a  sudden,  terrified  at  the  look  of 
Milo,  fled  toward  the  Tiber,  and  you  and  all  virtuous  men 
prayed  to  heaven  that  Milo  might  take  it  into  his  head  to  give 
full  scope  to  his  valor. 

If  then  he  did  not  choose  to  slay  him,  when  he  might  have 
done  so  with  the  gratitude  of  everyone,  is  it  likely  that  he  should 
have  chosen  to  do  so  when  some  people  were  sure  to  complain 
of  it  ?  If  he  did  not  venture  to  do  it  when  he  might  have  done  so 
lawfully,  when  he  had  both  place  and  time  in  his  favor,  when  he 
might  have  done  so  with  impunity,  can  we  believe  that  he  did 


SPEECH  *N  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO    219 

not  hesitate  to  slay  him  unjustly  at  a  time  and  place  which  sup- 
plied him  with  no  excuse  for  the  deed,  when  it  was  at  the  haz- 
ard of  his  life  ?  especially,  O  judges,  when  the  day  of  contest  for 
the  greatest  distinction  of  the  state,  and  the  day  of  the  comitia, 
was  at  hand.  At  which  time  (for  I  know  what  a  nervous  thing 
ambition  is,  how  vehement  and  how  anxious  is  the  desire  for 
the  consulship),  we  are  afraid  of  everything,  not  only  of  those 
things  which  can  be  openly  found  fault  with,  but  even  of  what- 
ever can  be  secretly  thought;  we  shudder  at  every  rumor,  at 
every  idle  and  empty  story;  we  look  anxiously  at  everyone's 
countenance,  at  everyone's  eye.  For  there  is  nothing  so  soft, 
so  tender,  so  frail,  so  flexible,  as  the  inclinations  and  feelings  of 
our  fellow-citizens  toward  us ;  for  they  are  not  only  angry 
at  any  impropriety  in  the  conduct  of  candidates,  but  they  often 
even  take  a  disgust  at  our  virtuous  actions. 

Did  Milo,  then,  keeping  in  view  this  long  hoped-for  and 
wished-for  day  of  the  Campus  Martius,  propose  to  himself  to 
come  to  those  venerable  auspices  of  the  centuries  with  bloody 
hands,  owning  and  confessing  a  wickedness  and  a  crime  ?  How 
perfectly  incredible  is  such  conduct  in  such  a  man!  At  the 
same  time,  how  undoubted  is  it  in  the  case  of  Clodius,  who 
thought  that  he  should  be  a  king  as  soon  as  Milo  was  slain. 
What  shall  I  say  more  ?  This  is  the  very  mainspring  of  audac- 
ity, O  judges,  for  who  is  there  who  does  not  know  that  the 
greatest  temptation  of  all  to  do  wrong  is  the  hope  of  impunity  ? 
Now,  in  which  of  the  two  did  this  exist  ?  In  Milo  ?  who  is  even 
now  on  his  trial  for  an  action  which  I  contend  was  an  illustrious 
one,  but  which  was  at  all  events  a  necessary  one ;  or  in  Clodius  ? 
who  had  shown  such  contempt  for  courts  of  justice  and  punish- 
ment, that  he  took  no  pleasure  in  anything  which  was  not  either 
impious,  from  its  disregard  of  the  prohibitions  of  nature,  or  ille- 
gal, from  its  violation  of  law. 

But  what  am  I  arguing  about  ?  why  do  I  keep  on  disputing  at 
greater  length  ?  I  appeal  to  you,  O  Quintus  Petillius,  a  most 
virtuous  and  fearless  citizen ;  I  call  you  to  witness,  O  Marcus 
Cato ;  whom  some  heavenly  interposition  has  given  me  for 
judges.  You  have  heard  from  Marcus  Favonius,  and  you 
heard  it,  too,  while  Clodius  was  alive,  that  he,  Clodius,  had  said 
to  him  that  Milo  would  die  within  three  days — and  on  the  third 
day  the  deed  which  he  had  mentioned  was  put  in  execution. 


220  CICERO 

When  he  did  not  hesitate  to  reveal  what  he  was  thinking  of, 
can  you  have  any  doubt  what  he  did  ? 

How,  then,  was  it,  that  he  was  so  correct  in  the  day  ?  I  told 
you  that  just  now.  There  was  no  great  difficulty  in  knowing 
the  regular  days  of  sacrifice  for  the  dictator  of  Lanuvium.  He 
saw  that  it  was  necessary  for  Milo  to  go  to  Lanuvium  on  the 
very  day  in  which  he  did  go — therefore,  he  anticipated  him. 
But  on  what  day  ?  Why,  on  the  day  on  which,  as  I  have  said 
before,  there  was  a  most  furious  assembly  of  the  people, 
stirred  up  by  the  tribune  of  the  people  whom  he  had  in 
his  pay — a  day,  and  an  assembly,  and  an  uproar  which  he  would 
never  have  missed  if  he  had  not  been  hastening  to  some  premed- 
itated crime.  Therefore,  he  had  not  only  no  reason  for  going 
on  a  journey,  but  he  had  even  a  reason  for  stopping  at  home. 
Milo  had  no  possibility  of  stopping  at  home,  and  he  had  not 
only  a  reason,  but  a  positive  necessity  for  going  on  a  journey. 
What  more?  Suppose,  while  he  knew  that  Milo  must  go  on 
the  road  on  that  day,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  Milo  could  not  even 
suspect  that  Clodius  would  ?  For,  first  of  all,  I  ask,  how  could 
Milo  know  it  ?  a  question  which  you  cannot  ask  respecting  Clo- 
dius. For  even  if  he  had  not  asked  anyone  beyond  his  own 
intimate  friend  Titus  Patina,  he  could  have  ascertained  from 
him  that  on  that  particular  day  a  priest  must  absolutely  be  ap- 
pointed at  Lanuvium  by  Milo  as  the  dictator  there.  But  there 
were  plenty  more  people  from  whom  he  could  easily  learn  that ; 
for  instance,  all  the  people  of  Lanuvium.  Of  whom  did  Milo 
make  any  inquiry  about  the  return  of  Clodius  ?  Grant  that  he 
did  make  inquiry ;  see  what  large  allowances  I  am  making  you ; 
grant  even  that  he  bribed  his  slave,  as  my  good  friend  Quintus 
Arrius  said.  Read  the  evidence  of  your  own  witnesses. 

Caius  Cassinius  Schola,  a  man  of  Interamna,  gave  his  evi- 
dence— a  most  intimate  friend  of  Publius  Clodius,  and  more, 
a  companion  of  his  at  the  very  time ;  according  to  whose  testi- 
mony, Publius  Clodius  was  at  Interamna  and  at  Rome  at  the 
very  same  time.  Well,  he  said,  that  Publius  Clodius  had  in- 
tended to  remain  that  day  at  his  Alban  villa ;  but  that  on  a  sud- 
den news  was  brought  to  him,  that  Cyrus  his  architect  was 
dead ;  and,  therefore,  that  he  determined  to  proceed  to  Rome 
immediately.  Caius  Clodius,  who  was  also  a  companion  of 
Publius  Clodius,  said  the  same. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO    221 

Take  notice,  O  judges,  what  the  real  effect  of  this  evidence 
must  be.  First  of  all,  Milo  is  certainly  acquitted  of  having  set 
out  with  the  express  intention  of  waylaying  Clodius  on  his  road ; 
this  must  be,  since  there  was  apparently  no  chance  whatever 
of  his  meeting  him.  In  the  next  place  (for  I  see  no  reason  why 
I  should  not  do  something  for  myself  at  the  same  time),  you 
know,  O  judges,  that  there  have  been  men  found  to  say,  while 
urging  on  this  bill  against  Milo,  that  the  murder  was  committed 
by  the  hand  indeed  of  Milo,  but  by  the  plan  of  someone  of  more 
importance  than  he.  Those  abject  and  profligate  men,  for- 
sooth, pointed  me  out  as  a  robber  and  assassin.  Now  they  lie 
convicted  by  their  own  witnesses,  who  say  that  Clodius  would 
not  have  returned  to  Rome  that  day  if  he  had  not  heard  the  news 
about  Cyrus.  I  breathed  again ;  I  was  delivered ;  I  am  not  any 
longer  afraid  of  being  supposed  to  have  contemplated  an  action 
which  I  could  not  possibly  have  suspected. 

Now  I  will  examine  the  other  point.  For  this  expression 
occurs  in  their  speech :  "  Therefore,  Clodius  never  even 
thought  of  the  plot  against  Milo,  since  he  intended  to  remain  in 
his  Alban  villa."  Yes,  he  meant  to  remain  there,  if  he  did  not 
rather  intend  to  go  out  and  commit  a  murder.  For  I  see  that 
the  messenger  who  is  said  to  have  brought  him  news  of  Cyrus's 
death  did  not  announce  that  to  him,  but  told  him  that  Milo  was 
at  hand.  For  why  should  he  bring  any  news  about  Cyrus, 
whom  Clodius  had  left  at  Rome  on  his  death-bed  ?  I  was  with 
him ;  I  signed  his  will  as  a  witness  together  with  Clodius ;  and 
he  had  openly  made  his  will,  and  had  left  him  and  me  his  heirs. 
When  he  had  left  him  the  day  before,  at  the  third  hour,  at  the 
very  point  of  death,  was  news  sent  express  to  him  the  next  day, 
at  the  tenth  hour,  that  he  was  at  last  dead? 

Well,  be  it  so ;  what  reason  had  he  for  hastening  to  Rome  ? 
for  starting  at  nightfall  ?  Why  should  the  fact  of  his  being  his 
heir  cause  him  to  make  so  much  haste?  In  the  first  place, 
there  was  no  reason  why  there  should  be  need  of  any  haste; 
secondly,  even  if  there  was,  still  what  was  there  which  he  could 
obtain  that  night,  but  which  he  would  lose  if  he  arrived  at  Rome 
early  the  next  morning  ?  And  as  an  arrival  in  the  city  by  night 
was  rather  to  be  avoided  by  him  than  to  be  desired,  so  it  was  just 
suited  for  Milo  to  lie  in  ambush  and  wait  for  him,  as  he  was  a 
plotter  of  that  sort,  if  he  knew  that  he  was  likely  to  come  to  the 


222  CICERO 

city  by  night.  He  would  have  slain  him  by  night,  in  a  place 
calculated  for  an  ambush  and  full  of  robbers  ;  no  one  would  have 
refused  to  have  believed  him  if  he  denied  it,  when  now  all  men 
wish  to  save  him  even  when  he  confesses  it.  The  brunt  of  the 
blame  would  have  fallen  on  the  place  itself,  so  well  suited  to 
receive  and  conceal  robbers,  while  neither  the  voiceless  solitude 
would  have  informed  against,  nor  the  dark  night  discovered 
Milo ;  secondly,  the  numbers  of  men  who  had  been  insulted  by 
Clodius,  or  plundered  by  him,  or  stripped  of  all  their  property 
by  him,  many,  too,  who  were  in  constant  fear  of  such  misfor- 
tunes, would  have  fallen  under  suspicion ;  in  short,  the  whole 
of  Etruria  would  have  been  impeached  in  people's  opinion. 

And  certainly  on  that  day  Clodius  returning  from  Aricia  did 
turn  aside  to  his  Alban  villa.  But  although  Milo  knew  that 
he  was  at  Aricia,  still  he  ought  to  have  suspected  that  he,  even 
if  he  was  desirous  to  return  to  Rome  that  day,  would  turn  aside 
to  his  own  villa,  the  grounds  of  which  skirted  the  road.  Why, 
then,  did  he  not  meet  him  before,  and  prevent  his  going  to  his 
villa  ?  nor  wait  in  that  place  where  he  would  certainly  arrive  by 
night? 

I  see  tnat  all  things  up  to  this  point  are  plain  and  consistent. 
That  it  was  even  desirable  for  Milo  that  Clodius  should  live; 
that  for  Clodius  the  death  of  Milo  was  the  most  advantageous 
thing  possible,  with  reference  to  those  objects  on  which  he  had 
set  his  heart ;  that  he  bore  him  the  most  bitter  hatred,  but  that 
Milo  had  no  such  feelings  toward  him ;  that  the  one  lived  in  a 
perpetual  round  of  violence,  that  the  other's  habits  were  limited 
to  repelling  it;  that  Milo  had  been  threatened  by  him  with 
death,  and  that  his  death  had  been  openly  predicted  by  him  ; 
that  no  such  expression  had  ever  been  heard  from  Milo ;  that 
the  day  of  Mile's  journey  was  well  known  to  Clodius,  but  that 
Clodius's  return  was  unknown  to  Milo ;  that  the  journey  of  the 
one  was  inevitable,  and  that  of  the  other  was  even  inconvenient 
to  himself;  that  the  one  had  openly  declared  that  on  that  day 
he  should  set  out  from  Rome,  that  the  other  had  concealed  the 
fact  of  his  intending  to  return  on  that  day ;  that  the  one  had  in 
no  respect  whatever  changed  his  intention,  that  the  other  had 
invented  a  false  pretence  for  changing  his  mind ;  that  the  one, 
if  he  were  plotting,  would  naturally  wish  night  to  come  on  when 
he  was  near  the  city,  while  an  arrival  at  the  city  by  night  was  to 


223 

be  feared  by  the  other,  even  if  he  had  no  apprehension  of  dan- 
ger from  this  man. 

Let  us  now  consider  this,  which  is  the  main  point  of  all ;  for 
which  of  the  two  the  identical  spot  where  they  did  meet  was  the 
best  suited  for  planting  an  ambush.  But  is  that,  O  judges,  a 
matter  about  which  one  can  possibly  doubt  or  think  seriously 
for  a  moment  ?  In  front  of  Clodius's  farm — that  farm  on  which, 
on  account  of  those  absurd  erections  and  excavations  for  foun- 
dations of  his,  there  were  pretty  well  a  thousand  vigorous  men 
employed — on  that  high  and  raised  ground  belonging  to  his 
adversary,  did  Milo  think  that  he  should  get  the  better  in  the 
contest,  and  had  he  with  that  view  selected  that  spot  above  all 
others  ?  Or  was  he  rather  waited  for  in  that  place  by  a  man 
who  had  conceived  the  idea  of  attacking,  because  of  the  hopes 
that  that  particular  spot  suggested  to  him?  The  facts,  O 
judges,  speak  for  themselves;  facts,  which  are  always  of  the 
greatest  weight  in  a  cause.  If  you  were  not  hearing  of  this 
transaction,  but  were  looking  at  a  picture  of  it,  still  it  would  be 
quite  visible  which  of  the  two  was  the  plotter,  which  was  think- 
ing no  evil,  when  one  of  the  two  was  driving  in  a  chariot 
wrapped  up  in  a  mantle,  with  his  wife  sitting  by  his  side.  It  is 
hard  to  say  which  was  the  greatest  hinderance  to  him,  his  dress, 
or  his  carriage,  or  his  wife.  How  could  a  man  be  less  ready  for 
battle  than  when  he  was  entangled  in  a  mantle  as  in  a  net,  ham- 
pered with  a  carriage,  and  fettered,  as  it  were,  by  his  wife  cling- 
ing to  him  ?  Look,  on  the  other  hand,  at  Clodius,  first  setting 
out  from  his  villa ;  all  on  a  sudden :  why  ?  It  was  evening. 
Why  was  he  forced  to  set  out  at  such  a  time?  Going  slowly. 
What  was  the  object  of  that,  especially  at  that  time  of  night? 
He  turns  aside  to  the  villa  of  Pompeius.  To  see  Pompeius? 
He  knew  that  he  was  near  Alsium.  To  see  the  villa  ?  He  had 
been  in  it  a  thousand  times.  What,  then,  was  his  object  ?  De- 
lay ;  he  wanted  to  waste  the  time.  He  did  not  choose  to  leave 
the  spot  till  Milo  arrived. 

Come,  now,  compare  the  journey  of  this  unencumbered  ban- 
dit with  all  the  hinderances  which  beset  Milo.  Before  this  time 
he  always  used  to  travel  with  his  wife ;  now  he  was  without  her. 
He  invariably  went  in  a  carriage ;  now  he  was  on  horseback. 
His  train  were  a  lot  of  Greeklings  wherever  he  was  going ;  even 


224  CICERO 

when  he  was  hastening  to  the  camp  in  Etruria  ;10  but  this  time 
there  were  no  triflers  in  his  retinue.  Milo,  who  was  never  in 
the  habit  of  doing  so,  did  by  chance  have  with  him  some  musi- 
cal slaves  belonging  to  his  wife,  and  troops  of  maid-servants. 
The  other  man,  who  was  always  carrying  with  him  prostitutes, 
worn-out  debauchees  both  men  and  women,  this  time  had  no 
one  with  him  except  such  a  band  that  you  might  have  thought 
every  one  of  them  picked  men.  Why,  then,  was  he  defeated  ? 
Because  the  traveller  is  not  always  murdered  by  the  robber; 
sometimes  the  robber  is  killed  by  the  traveller;  because,  al- 
though Clodius  in  a  state  of  perfect  preparation  was  attacking 
men  wholly  unprepared,  still  it  was  the  case  of  a  woman  falling 
upon  men.  And,  indeed,  Milo  was  never  so  utterly  unprepared 
for  his  violence  as  not  to  be  nearly  sufficiently  prepared.  He 
was  always  aware  how  greatly  it  concerned  the  interest  of  Pub- 
lius  Clodius  that  he  should  be  slain,  how  greatly  he  hated  him, 
and  how  great  was  his  daring.  Wherefore,  he  never  exposed 
his  life  to  danger  without  some  sort  of  protection  and  guard, 
knowing  that  it  was  threatened,  and  that  a  large  price,  as  it 
were,  were  set  upon  it. 

Add  to  this  consideration  all  the  chances;  add  the  always 
uncertain  result  of  a  battle,  and  the  common  fortune  of  Mars, 
who  often  overthrows  the  man  who  is  already  exulting  and 
stripping  his  enemy,  and  strikes  him  to  the  ground  by  some 
mean  agent ;  add  the  blundering  conduct  of  a  leader  who  had 
dined  and  drank,  and  who  was  yawning  and  drowsy ;  who,  when 
he  had  left  his  enemy  cut  off  in  the  rear,  never  thought  of  his 
companions  on  the  outskirts  of  his  train ;  and  then  when  he  fell 
among  them  inflamed  with  anger,  and  despairing  of  saving  the 
life  of  their  master,  he  fell  on  that  punishment  which  the  faithful 
slaves  inflicted  on  him  as  a  retribution  for  their  master's  death. 
Why,  then,  has  Milo  emancipated  them?  He  was  afraid,  I 
suppose,  lest  they  should  give  information  against  him;  lest 
they  should  be  unable  to  bear  pain ;  lest  they  should  be  com- 
pelled by  tortures  to  confess  that  Publius  Clodius  was  slain  in 
the  Appian  road  by  the  slaves  of  Milo. 

What  need  is  there  of  any  torturer  ?  What  do  you  want  to 
know?  whether  he  was  slain ?  He  was  slain.  Whether  he  was 

10  That  is,  to  Manlius's  camp  in  Etru-        in  which,  in  all  probability,  Clodius  was 
ria  at  the  time  of  Catiline's  conspiracy,        implicated. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     225 

slain  lawfully  or  unlawfully?  That  is  beyond  the  province  of 
the  torturer.  For  the  rack  can  only  inquire  into  the  fact ;  it  is 
the  bench  of  judges  that  must  decide  on  the  law. 

Let  us,  then,  here  confine  our  attention  to  what  must  be  in- 
vestigated in  this  trial.  All  that  you  can  want  to  find  out  by 
tortures  we  admit.  But  if  you  prefer  asking  why  he  emanci- 
pated his  slaves,  rather  than  why  he  gave  them  inadequate  re- 
wards, you  are  but  a  bungling  hand  at  finding  fault  with  an 
enemy.  For  Marcus  Cato,  who  says  everything  with  great 
wisdom,  and  consistency,  and  courage,  said  the  same  thing; 
and  he  said,  too,  in  a  very  turbulent  assembly  of  the  people,' 
which,  however,  was  pacified  by  his  authority,  that  those  slaves 
were  worthy  not  only  of  liberty,  but  even  of  every  sort  of  reward 
possible,  who  had  defended  the  life  of  their  master.  For  what 
reward  can  be  sufficiently  great  for  such  well-affected,  such  vir- 
tuous, such  faithful  slaves,  owing  to  whom  it  is  that  he  is  still 
alive  ?  Although  even  that  is  not  putting  it  so  strongly  as  to 
say,  that  it  is  owing  to  those  very  men  that  he  did  not  glut  the 
eyes  and  mind  of  his  most  cruel  enemy  with  his  blood  and 
wounds.  And  if  he  had  not  emancipated  them,  then  those  pre- 
servers of  their  master,  those  avengers  of  wickedness,  those 
defenders  of  their  master  from  death,  must  have  even  been  sur- 
rendered to  torture.  But  in  all  these  misfortunes  the  most  com- 
fortable reflection  which  Milo  has  is,  that,  even  if  anything 
should  happen  to  himself,  still  he  has  given  them  the  reward 
which  they  deserved. 

But  now  the  examinations  which  have  just  been  conducted 
in  the  hall  of  liberty,  are  said  to  press  against  Milo.  Who  are 
the  slaves  who  have  been  examined?  Do  you  ask?  The 
slaves  of  Publius  Clodius.  Who  demanded  that  they  should 
be  examined?  Appius.  Who  produced  them?  Appius. 
Where  were  they  brought  from  ?  From  the  house  of  Appius. 
O  ye  good  gods,  what  can  be  done  with  more  animosity? 
There  is  no  law  which  authorizes  slaves  to  be  examined  as  wit- 
nesses against  their  master,  except  on  accusations  of  impiety, 
as  was  the  case  in  the  prosecution  instituted  against  Clodius. 
Clodius  has  been  raised  nearly  to  the  gods,  more  nearly  than 
even  when  he  penetrated  into  their  sanctuary,  when  an  investi- 
gation into  the  circumstances  of  his  death  is  carried  on  like  one 
into  a  profanation  of  sacred  ceremonies.  But  still,  our  ances- 
15 


226  CICERO 

tors  did  not  think  it  right  that  slaves  should  be  examined  as  wit- 
nesses against  their  masters;  not  because  the  truth  could  not 
be  discovered,  but  because  it  seemed  a  scandalous  thing  to  do, 
and  more  oppressive  to  the  masters  than  even  death  itself. 
Well,  then,  when  the  slaves  of  the  prosecutor  are  examined  as 
witnesses  against  the  defendant,  can  the  truth  be  found  out  ? 

Come,  however,  what  was  the  examination ;  and  how  was  it 
conducted?  Holloa,  you  Rufio  (that  name  will  do  as  well  as 
another),  take  care  you  tell  the  truth.  Did  Clodius  lay  a  plot 
against  Milo?  "  He  did."  He  is  sure  to  be  crucified  for  say- 
ing so.  "  Certainly  not."  He  has  hopes  of  obtaining  his  lib- 
erty. What  can  be  more  certain  than  this  mode  of  examina- 
tion ?  The  men  are  suddenly  carried  off  to  be  examined ;  they 
are  separated  from  all  the  rest,  and  put  into  cells  that  no  one 
may  be  able  to  speak  to  them.  Then,  when  they  have  been  kept 
a  hundred  days  in  the  power  of  the  prosecutor,  they  are  pro- 
duced as  witnesses  by  the  prosecutor  himself.  What  can  be 
imagined  more  upright  than  this  sort  of  examination  ?  What 
can  be  more  free  from  all  suspicion  of  corruption  ? 

And  if  you  do  not  yet  see  with  sufficient  clearness  (though 
the  transaction  is  evident  of  itself  by  so  many  and  such  irresisti- 
ble arguments  and  proofs),  that  Milo  was  returning  to  Rome 
with  a  pure  and  guiltless  intention,  with  no  taint  of  wick- 
edness, under  no  apprehension,  without  any  consciousness 
of  crime  to  disquiet  him;  recollect,  I  implore  you,  in  the 
name  of  the  immortal  gods,  how  rapid  his  speed  while  returning 
was ;  how  he  entered  the  forum  while  the  senate-house  was  all 
on  fire  with  eagerness ;  how  great  was  the  magnanimity  which 
he  displayed ;  how  he  looked,  and  what  he  said.  Nor  did  he 
trust  himself  to  the  people  only,  but  also  to  the  Senate ;  nor  to 
the  Senate  only,  but  also  to  the  public  guards  and  their  arms ; 
nor  to  them  only,  but  also  to  the  power  of  that  man  to  whom  the 
Senate  had  already  intrusted  "  the  whole  republic,  all  the  youth 

11  The   disturbances   on   the   death   of  for  the  examination  of  witnesses,   and 

Clodius  arose  to  such  a  height,  that  the  on  the  fourth  day  the  accuser  was  only 

Senate  at  last  passed  a  resolution  that  allowed   two    hours    to    enforce    the   ac- 

Marcus   Lepidus   the   Interrex,   assisted  cusation,  and  the  defendant  three  hours 

by  the  tribunes  of  the  people  and  Pom-  to    speak    in    his    defence.      Ccelius    en- 

peius,  should  take  care  that  the  republic  deavored    to    arrest    these    laws    by    his 

received    no    injury.      And    at    last    the  veto  as  tribune,  declaring  that  they  were 

Senate  appointed  Pompeius  consul  with-  framed  solely  with  a  vjew  to  crush  Milo, 

out  a  colleague,  who  immediately  pub-  whom  Pompeius  certainly  desired  to  get 

lished    several    new    laws,    and    among  rid  of;  to  effect  which  he  even  descended 

them  the  one  under  which  this  trial  was  to  the  artifice  of  pretending  to   believe 

conducted,  and  he  now  limited  the  dura-  that  Milo  had  laid  a  plot  to  assassinate 

tion  of  trials,  allowing  only  three  days  him. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO     227 

of  Italy,  and  all  the  arms  of  the  Roman  people.  And  surely  he 
never  would  have  put  himself  in  his  power,  if  he  had  not  been 
confident  in  the  justice  of  his  cause ;  especially  as  he  was  one 
who  heard  everything,  and  feared  great  danger,  and  suspected 
many  things,  and  even  believed  some.  The  power  of  con- 
science is  very  great,  O  judges,  and  is  of  great  weight  on  both 
sides ;  so  that  they  fear  nothing  who  have  done  no  wrong,  and 
they,  on  the  other  hand,  who  have  done  wrong  think  that  pun- 
ishment is  always  hanging  over  them. 

Nor,  indeed,  is  it  without  good  reason  that  Mile's  cause  has 
always  been  approved  of  by  the  Senate.  For  these  wisest  of 
men  took  into  their  consideration  the  whole  circumstances  of 
the  case ;  Milo's  presence  of  mind,  and  vigor  in  defending  him- 
self. Have  you  forgotten,  O  judges,  when  the  news  of  Clo- 
dius's  death  was  still  recent,  the  opinions  and  the  language 
which  were  held,  not  only  by  Milo's  enemies,  but  also  by  other 
ignorant  people  ?  They  said  that  he  would  not  return  to  Rome 
at  all.  For  if  he  had  committed  the  deed  in  a  passionate  and 
excited  mood,  so  that  he  had  slain  his  enemy  while  under  the 
influence  of  strong  hatred,  they  thought  that  he  would  con- 
sider the  death  of  Publius  Clodius  an  event  of  such  importance, 
that  he  would  bear  being  deprived  of  his  country  with  equanim- 
ity, as  he  had  sated  his  hatred  in  the  blood  of  his  enemy ;  or,  if 
he  had  deliberately  intended  to  deliver  his  country  by  the 
slaughter  of  Clodius,  then  they  thought  that  he,  as  a  brave  man, 
would  not  hesitate,  after  having  brought  safety  to  his  country 
at  his  own  risk,  to  submit  with  equanimity  to  the  laws,  to  carry 
off  with  himself  everlasting  renown,  and  to  leave  those  things 
to  us  to  enjoy  which  he  had  preserved  for  us  himself. 

Many  also  spoke  of  Catiline  and  the  monsters  of  his  train. 
"  We  shall  have  another  Catiline  breaking  out.  He  will  oc- 
cupy some  strong  place ;  he  will  make  war  on  his  country." 
Wretched  sometimes  is  the  fate  of  those  citizens  who  have  faith- 
fully served  the  republic !  when  men  not  only  forget  the  illustri- 
ous exploits  which  they  have  performed,  but  even  suspect  them 
of  the  most  nefarious  designs !  Therefore,  all  those  things 
were  false,  which  would  certainly  have  turned  out  true  if  Milo 
had  committed  any  action  which  he  could  not  defend  with 
honor  and  with  truth. 

What  shall  I  say  of  the  charges  which  were  afterward  heaped 


228  CICERO 

upon  him  ?  which  would  have  crushed  anyone  who  was  con- 
scious of  even  trifling  offences.  How  nobly  did  he  support 
them !  O  ye  immortal  gods,  do  I  say  support  them  ?  Say 
rather,  how  did  he  despise  them,  and  treat  them  as  nothing! 
Charges  which  no  guilty  man,  were  he  ever  so  high-minded, 
and,  indeed,  no  innocent  man,  unless  he  were  also  a  most  fear- 
less man,  could  possibly  have  disregarded.  It  was  said  that  a 
vast  collection  of  shields,  swords,  bridles,  lances,  and  javelins 
had  been  seized.  They  said  that  there  was  no  street,  no  alley  in 
the  whole  city,  in  which  there  was  not  a  house  hired  for  Milo ; 
that  arms  had  been  carried  down  the  Tiber  to  his  villa  at  Oric- 
ulum ;  that  his  house  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  was  full  of  shields ; 
that  every  place  was  full  of  firebrands  prepared  for  the  burning 
of  the  city.  These  things  were  not  only  reported,  but  were 
almost  believed,  and  were  not  rejected  till  they  had  been  thor- 
oughly investigated.  I  praised,  indeed,  the  incredible  diligence 
of  Cnaeus  Pompeius ;  but  still  I  will  say  what  I  really  think,  O 
judges. 

Those  men  are  compelled  to  listen  to  too  many  statements ; 
indeed,  they  cannot  do  otherwise,  who  have  the  whole  republic 
intrusted  to  them.  It  was  necessary  even  to  listen  to  that  eat- 
ing-house keeper  Licinius,  if  that  was  his  name,  a  fellow  out  of 
the  Circus  Maximus,  who  said  that  Milo's  slaves  had  got  drunk 
in  his  house,  that  they  had  confessed  to  him  that  they  were  en- 
gaged in  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  and  that 
he  himself  was  afterward  stabbed  by  one  of  them  to  prevent 
him  from  giving  information.  He  went  to  Pompeius's  villa  to 
tell  him  this.  I  am  sent  for  among  the  first.  By  the  advice 
of  his  friends,  Pompeius  reports  the  affair  to  the  Senate.  It  was 
impossible  for  me  to  be  otherwise  than  frightened  almost  to 
death  at  the  bare  suspicion  of  such  danger  to  one  who  was  the 
protector  both  of  me  and  of  my  country ;  but  still  I  wondered 
that  an  eating-house  keeper  should  be  at  once  believed,  that  the 
confession  of  the  slaves  should  be  listened  to,  and  that  a  wound 
in  the  side,  which  looked  like  the  prick  of  a  needle,  should  be 
admitted  to  be  a  wound  inflicted  by  a  gladiator.  But,  as  I  take 
the  fact  to  have  been,  Pompeius  was  rather  taking  precautions 
than  feeling  any  actual  alarm,  guarding  not  only  against  those 
things  which  it  was  reasonable  to  fear,  but  also  against  every- 
thing which  could  possibly  disquiet  you. 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO     229 

The  house  of  Caius  Caesar,  that  most  illustrious  and  gallant 
man,  was  besieged,  as  was  reported,  during  many  hours  of  the 
night.  No  one  in  that  frequented  part  of  the  city  had  either 
seen  or  heard  of  any  such  thing.  Still  such  a  report  was  spread 
about.  I  could  not  possibly  suspect  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  a  man 
of  the  most  admirable  valor,  of  being  timid ;  and  I  thought  no 
diligence  could  be  overstrained  in  a  man  who  had  undertaken 
the  management  and  protection  of  the  whole  of  the  republic. 
In  a  very  full  meeting  of  the  Senate,  lately  held  in  the  Capitol, 
a  senator  was  found  to  say  that  Milo  had  a  weapon  about  him. 
He  threw  back  his  garments  in  that  most  sacred  temple,  that, 
since  the  life  of  so  good  a  citizen  and  so  good  a  man  could  not 
procure  him  credit,  the  facts  themselves  might  speak  for  him, 
while  he  held  his  peace. 

Every  word  was  ascertained  to  be  a  false  and  treacherous  in- 
vention. And  if  people  are  even  now  afraid  of  Milo,  we  are  not 
now  under  apprehension  because  of  the  charge  respecting  Clo- 
dius,  but  we  are  shuddering  at  your  suspicions — at  yours,  I 
say,  O  Cnaeus  Pompeius  (for  I  address  you  yourself,  and  I  speak 
loudly  so  that  you  may  be  able  to  hear  me).  If  you  are  afraid 
of  Milo — if  you  believe  that  he  either  now  cherishes  wicked 
designs  against  your  life,  or  that  he  ever  has  entertained  such ; 
if  the  levying  of  troops  throughout  Italy,  as  some  of  your  re- 
cruiting sergeants  pretend — if  these  arms — if  these  cohorts  in 
the  Capitol — if  these  watchmen,  these  sentinels — if  this  picked 
body  of  youths,  which  is  the  guard  of  your  person  and  your 
house,  is  all  armed  against  an  attack  on  the  part  of  Milo ;  and  if 
all  these  measures  have  been  arranged,  and  prepared,  and  aimed 
against  him  alone — then  certainly  he  must  be  a  man  of  great 
power,  of  incredible  courage ;  surely  it  must  be  more  than  the 
power  and  resources  of  one  single  man  which  are  attributed  to 
him,  if  the  most  eminent  of  our  generals  is  invested  with  a  com- 
mand, and  all  Italy  is  armed  against  this  one  man.  But  who  is 
there  who  does  not  understand  that  all  the  diseased  and  feeble 
parts  of  the  republic  were  intrusted  to  you,  O  Pompeius,  that 
you  might  heal  and  strengthen  them  with  your  arms  ?  And  if 
an  opportunity  had  been  afforded  to  Milo,  he  would,  doubtless, 
have  proved  to  you  yourself  that  no  man  was  ever  more  dear  to 
another  than  you  are  to  him ;  that  he  had  never  shunned  any 
danger  which  might  be  of  service  in  promoting  your  dignity ; 


230  CICERO 

that  he  had  often  contended  against  that  most  foul  pest  on  be- 
half of  your  glory ;  that  his  conduct  in  his  tribuneship  had  been 
entirely  regulated  by  your  counsels  for  the  protection  of  my 
safety,  which  was  an  object  very  dear  to  you ;  that  he  afterward 
had  been  defended  by  you  when  in  danger  of  his  life,12  and  had 
been  assisted  by  you  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  praetor- 
ship;  and  that  he  had  always  believed  that  the  two  firmest 
friends  whom  he  had  were  you  and  I — you,  as  shown  by  the 
kindness  of  your  behavior  to  him,  and  I,  secured  to  him  by  the 
services  which  he  himself  had  done  me.  And  if  he  could  not 
convince  you  of  this — if  that  suspicion  had  sunk  so  deep  in  your 
mind  that  it  could  not  possibly  be  eradicated ;  if,  in  short,  Italy 
was  never  to  have  any  rest  from  those  levies,  nor  the  city  from 
arms,  till  Milo  was  ruined — then  no  doubt  he,  without  hesita- 
tion, would  have  departed  from  his  country,  a  man  born  to 
make  such  sacrifices  and  accustomed  to  make  them  ;  but  still  he 
would  have  cited  you,  O  Magnus,  as  a  witness  in  his  favor,  as 
he  now  does. 

See,  now,  how  various  and  changeable  is  the  course  of  human 
life,  how  fickle  and  full  of  revolutions  is  fortune;  what  in- 
stances of  perfidy  are  seen  in  friends,  how  they  dissemble  and 
suit  their  behavior  to  the  occasion ;  when  dangers  beset  one, 
how  one's  nearest  connections  fly  off,  and  what  cowardice  they 
show.  The  time  will  come,  ay,  will  most  certainly  come — 
that  day  will  surely  dawn  some  time  or  other,  when  you,  though 
your  affairs  are  all,  as  I  trust  they  will  be,  in  a  really  sound  con- 
dition, though  they  may,  perhaps,  wear  an  altered  appearance  in 
consequence  of  some  commotion  of  the  times,  such  as  we  are 
all  liable  to  (and  how  constantly  such  things  happen  we  may 
know  from  experience) — when  you,  I  say,  may  be  in  need  of  the 
good-will  of  one  who  is  most  deeply  attached  to  you,  and  the 
good  faith  of  a  man  of  the  greatest  weight  and  dignity,  and  the 
magnanimity  of  the  very  bravest  man  that  ever  lived  in  the 
world.  Although,  who  would  believe  that  Cnaeus  Pompeius, 
a  man  most  thoroughly  versed  in  public  law,  in  the  usages  of 
our  ancestors,  and  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  republic,  after  the  Sen- 

12  When   Clodius  was   aedile,   he   insti-  heard,   he  made  a  long   speech,    lasting 

tuted    a    prosecution    against    Milo    for  three   hours,   in    his   defence.     The   trial 

violence.    Pompeius,  Crassus  and  Cicero  was  adjourned  from  February  till   May. 

appeared  for  him;  and  though  Clodius's  and  does  not  appear  to  have  ever  been 

mob  raised  a  great  uproar,   and   endea-  brought  to  a  regular  termination, 
vored  to  prevent  Pompeius  from  being 


SPEECH   IN   DEFENCE   OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO      231 

ate  has  intrusted  to  him  the  charge  of  taking  care  "  that  the 
republic  suffered  no  injury,"  by  which  one  line  the  consuls  have 
always  been  sufficiently  armed,  even  though  no  warlike 
weapons  were  given  to  them — that  he,  I  say,  after  having  had 
an  army  and  a  levy  of  troops  given  to  him,  would  wait  for  a 
legal  decision  to  repress  the  designs  of  that  man  who  was  seek- 
ing by  violence  to  abolish  the  courts  of  justice  themselves? 

It  was  sufficiently  decided  by  Pompeius,  quite  sufficiently, 
that  all  those  charges  were  falsely  brought  against  Milo ;  when 
he  passed  a  law  by  which,  as  I  conceive,  he  was  bound  to  be  ac- 
quitted by  you — at  all  events,  as  all  men  allow,  might  legally 
be  acquitted.  But  when  he  sits  in  that  place,  surrounded  by  all 
those  bands  of  public  guards,  he  declares  plainly  enough  that 
he  is  not  striking  terror  into  you  (for  what  could  be  less  worthy 
of  him  than  to  condemn  a  man  whom  he  himself  might  punish 
if  guilty,  both  by  his  own  authority  and  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  precedents  of  our  ancestors  ?),  but  that  he  keeps  them 
about  him  for  the  sake  of  protection ;  that  you  may  be  aware 
that  it  is  allowed  to  you  to  decide  with  freedom  according  to 
your  own  opinions,  in  contradiction  to  that  assembly  of  the 
people  which  was  held  yesterday. 

Nor,  O  judges,  am  I  at  all  moved  by  the  accusation  respect- 
ing Clodius.  Nor  am  I  so  insane,  and  so  ignorant  of,  and  in- 
experienced in,  your  feelings,  as  not  to  be  aware  what  your 
opinions  are  about  the  death  of  Clodius,  concerning  which,  if 
I  were  unwilling  to  do  away  with  the  accusation  in  the  manner 
in  which  I  have  done  away  with  it,  still  I  assert  that  it  would 
have  been  lawful  for  Milo  to  proclaim  openly,  with  a  false  but 
glorious  boast,  "  I  have  slain,  I  have  slain,  not  Spurius  Mselius, 
who  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  aiming  at  kingly  power  by 
lowering  the  price  of  corn,  and  by  squandering  his  own  family 
estate,  because  by  that  conduct  he  was  thought  to  be  paying 
too  much  court  to  the  common  people  ;  not  Tiberius  Gracchus, 
who,  out  of  a  seditious  spirit,  abrogated  the  magistracy  of  his 
own  colleague,  whose  slayers  have  filled  the  whole  world  with 
the  renown  of  their  name ;  but  him  "  (for  he  would  venture  to 
name  him  when  he  had  delivered  his  country  at  his  own  risk) 
"  who  was  detected  in  the  most  infamous  adultery  in  the  most 
sacred  shrine,  by  most  noble  women ;  him,  by  the  execution  of 
whom  the  Senate  has  repeatedly  resolved  that  solemn  religious 


232 


CICERO 


observances  required  to  be  propitiated ;  him  whom  Lucius  Lu- 
cullus,  when  he  was  examined  on  the  point,  declared  on  his  oath 
that  he  had  detected  in  committing  unhallowed  incest  with  his 
own  sister;  him,  who  by  means  of  armed  bands  of  slaves  drove 
from  his  country  that  citizen  whom  the  Senate,  whom  the 
Roman  people,  whom  all  nations  had  declared  to  be  the  saviour 
of  the  city  and  of  the  lives  of  all  the  citizens ;  him,  who  gave 
kingdoms,  took  them  away,  and  distributed  the  whole  world 
to  whomsoever  he  pleased ;  him  who,  after  having  committed 
numberless  murders  in  the  forum,  drove  a  citizen  of  the  most 
extraordinary  virtue  and  glory  to  his  own  house  by  violence 
and  by  arms ;  him,  to  whom  nothing  was  ever  too  impious  to  be 
done,  whether  it  was  a  deed  of  atrocity  or  of  lust;  him,  who 
burnt  the  temple  of  the  nymphs,  in  order  to  extinguish  the  pub- 
lic record  of  the  census  which  was  committed  to  the  public  reg- 
isters ;  lastly,  him  who  acknowledged  no  law,  no  civil  rights,  no 
boundaries  to  any  man's  possessions,  who  sought  to  obtain 
other  people's  estates,  not  by  actions  at  law  and  false  accusa- 
tions, not  by  unjust  claims  and  false  oaths,  but  by  camps,  by  an 
army,  by  regular  standards  and  all  the  pomp  of  war,  who,  by 
means  of  arms  and  soldiers,  endeavored  to  drive  from  their  pos- 
sessions, not  only  the  Etrurians,  for  he  thoroughly  despised 
them,  but  even  this  Publius  Varius,  that  most  gallant  man  and 
most  virtuous  citizen,  one  of  our  judges,  who  went  into  many 
other  people's  villas  and  grounds  with  architects  and  surveyors, 
who  limited  his  hopes  of  acquiring  possessions  by  Janiculum 
and  the  Alps ;  him  who,  when  he  was  unable  to  prevail  on  an 
estimable  and  gallant  Roman  knight,  Marcus  Paconius,  to  sell 
him  his  villa  on  the  Prelian  Lake,  suddenly  conveyed  timber, 
and  lime,  and  mortar,  and  tools  in  barks  to  the  island,  and  while 
the  owner  of  the  island  was  looking  at  him  from  the  opposite 
bank,  did  not  hesitate  to  build  a  house  on  another  man's  land ; 
who  said  to  Titus  Furfanius — O  ye  immortal  gods,  what  a  man  ! 
(for  why  should  I  mention  that  insignificant  woman,  Scantia,  or 
that  youth  Aponius,  both  of  whom  he  threatened  with  death  if 
they  did  not  abandon  to  him  the  possession  of  their  villas  ?)  but 
he  dared  to  say  to  Furfanius,  that  if  he  did  not  give  him  as  much 
money  as  he  demanded,  he  would  carry  a  dead  body  into  his 
house,  and  so  raise  a  storm  of  unpopularity  against  him ;  who 
turned  his  brother  Appius,  a  man  connected  with  me  by  the 


SPEECH   IN   DEFENCE   OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO 


233 


most  faithful  friendship,  while  he  was  absent,  out  of  the  posses- 
sion of  his  farm  ;  who  determined  to  run  a  wall  across  the  vesti- 
bule of  his  sister's  house  in  such  a  manner,  and  to  draw  the  line 
of  foundation  in  such  a  direction,  as  not  only  to  deprive  his  sis- 
ter of  her  vestibule,  but  of  all  access  to  her  house,  and  of  her 
own  threshold." 

Although  all  these  things  appeared  such  as  might  be  endured 
— although  he  attacked  with  equal  fury  the  republic,  and  private 
individuals,  and  men  who  were  at  a  distance,  and  men  who  were 
near,  people  who  had  no  connection  with  him,  and  his  own  rela- 
tions ;  yet  somehow  or  other  the  incredible  endurance  of  the 
state  had  by  long  use  grown  hardened  and  callous.  But  as  for 
the  things  which  were  at  hand,  and  were  impending  over  you, 
in  what  manner  was  it  possible  for  you  either  to  avert  them  or 
to  bear  them  ?  If  he  had  once  obtained  real  power — I  say  noth- 
ing of  our  allies,  of  foreign  nations,  and  kings,  and  tetrarchs ; 
for  you  would  have  prayed  that  he  might  turn  himself  against 
them  rather  than  against  your  possessions,  your  houses,  and 
your  money ;  money  do  I  say  ?  your  children  rather — I  solemnly 
swear  he  would  never  have  restrained  himself  from  your  chil- 
dren and  from  your  wives.  Do  you  think  that  these  things  are 
inventions  of  mine  ?  They  are  evident ;  they  are  notorious  to 
everyone ;  they  are  proved.  Is  it  an  invention  of  mine  that  he 
was  about  to  enlist  an  army  of  slaves  in  the  city,  by  whose  in- 
strumentality he  might  take  possession  of  the  whole  republic, 
and  of  the  private  fortune  of  everyone  ? 

Wherefore,  if  Titus  Annius,  holding  in  his  hand  a  bloody 
sword,  had  cried  out,  "  Come  hither,  I  beg  of  you,  and  listen 
to  me,  O  citizens :  I  have  slain  Publius  Clodius ;  with  this  sword 
and  with  this  right  hand  I  have  turned  aside  from  your  necks 
the  frenzied  attacks  of  that  man  whom  we  were  unable  to  re- 
strain by  any  laws,  or  by  any  judicial  proceedings  whatever; 
by  my  single  efforts  has  it  been  brought  to  pass  that  right,  and 
equity,  and  laws,  and  liberty,  and  modesty,  and  chastity  remain 
in  this  city ;  "  would  there  in  truth  have  been  any  reason  to  fear 
in  what  manner  the  city  would  receive  this  announcement? 
For  now,  as  it  is,  who  is  there  who  does  not  approve  of  what  has 
been  done  ?  who  does  not  praise  it  ?  who  does  not  both  say  and 
feel  that  of  all  men  to  whom  recollection  can  reach  back,  Titus 
Annius  has  done  the  republic  the  greatest  service ;  that  of  all 


234  CICERO 

men  he  has  diffused  the  greatest  joy  among  the  Roman  people, 
and  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  throughout  all  nations?  I 
cannot  form  a  conception  of  what  would  have  been  the  old- 
fashioned  joy  of  the  Roman  people.  Already  our  age  has  seen 
many,  and  those  most  illustrious  victories,  won  by  consummate 
generals ;  but  not  one  of  them  has  brought  with  it  a  joy  that 
either  lasted  so  long,  or  that  was  so  excessive  while  it  did  last. 

Commit  this  fact  to  memory,  O  judges.  I  trust  that  you  and 
your  children  will  see  many  happy  days  in  the  republic.  On 
every  occasion  these  will  always  be  your  feelings — that  if  Pub- 
lius  Clodius  had  been  alive,  you  never  would  have  seen  one  of 
them.  We  have  been  led  now  to  conceive  the  greatest,  and,  as 
I  feel  sure,  the  best-founded  hopes,  that  this  very  day,  this  most 
admirable  man  being  made  our  consul,  when  the  licentiousness 
of  men  is  checked,  their  evil  passions  put  down,  the  laws  and 
courts  of  justice  re-established  on  a  firm  footing,  will  be  a  salu- 
tary day  for  the  republic.  Is  there,  then,  anyone  so  insane  as 
to  think  that  he  could  have  obtained  all  this  while  Publius  Clo- 
dius was  alive  ?  What  ?  why,  what  power  of  perpetual  posses- 
sion could  you  have  had  even  in  those  things  which  you  pos- 
sess as  your  private  property  and  in  the  strictest  sense  your 
own,  while  that  frenzied  man  held  the  reins  of  government  ? 

I  have  no  fear,  O  judges,  lest  it  should  seem  that,  because  I 
am  inflamed  with  hatred  against  him,  on  account  of  my  own 
personal  enmity  to  the  man,  I  am  vomiting  forth  these  charges 
against  him  with  more  zeal  than  truth.  In  truth,  though  it  is 
natural  that  that  should  be  an  especial  stimulus  to  me,  yet  he 
was  so  completely  the  common  enemy  of  all  men,  that  my  own 
hatred  only  bore  about  its  fair  proportion  to  the  general  detes- 
tation with  which  he  was  regarded.  It  cannot  be  expressed,  O 
judges,  it  cannot  even  be  imagined,  how  much  wickedness,  how 
much  mischief  there  was  in  that  man. 

Moreover,  attend  to  me  with  this  idea,  O  judges.  This  in- 
vestigation relates  to  the  death  of  Publius  Clodius.  Imagine  in 
your  minds — for  our  thoughts  are  free,  and  contemplate  what- 
ever they  choose  in  such  a  manner  that  we  do  discern  those 
things  which  we  think  we  see — place,  therefore,  before  your 
mind's  eye  the  image  of  this  my  condition ;  if  I  am  able  to  induce 
you  to  acquit  Milo,  but  still  only  on  condition  of  Publius  Clo- 
dius being  restored  to  life.  What  fear  is  that  that  you  show 


SPEECH   IN   DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO      235 

by  your  countenances?  How  would  he  affect  you  if  alive, 
when  even  now  that  he  is  dead  he  has  so  agitated  you  by  the 
bare  thought  of  him  ?  What  ?  if  Cnaeus  Pompeius  himself,  who 
is  a  man  of  such  virtue  and  such  good  fortune  that  he  has  at  all 
times  been  able  to  do  things  which  no  one  except  him  ever  could 
have  done — if  even  he,  I  say,  had  been  able,  in  the  same  manner 
as  he  has  ordered  an  investigation  into  the  death  of  Publius  Clo- 
dius  to  take  place,  so  also  to  raise  him  from  the  dead,  which  do 
you  think  he  would  have  preferred  to  do  ?  Even  if  out  of  friend- 
ship he  had  been  willing  to  raise  him  from  the  shades  below, 
out  of  regard  for  the  republic  he  would  not  have  done  it.  You, 
then,  are  sitting  now  as  avengers  of  the  death  of  that  man, 
whom  you  would  not  restore  to  life  if  you  thought  it  possible 
that  his  life  could  be  restored  by  you.  And  this  investigation 
is  appointed  to  be  made  into  the  death  of  a  man  who  would 
never  have  seen  such  a  law  passed,  if  the  law  which  ordered  the 
inquiry  had  been  able  to  restore  him  to  life.  Ought,  then,  the 
slayer  of  this  man,  if  any  such  slayer  there  be,  to  have  any  rea- 
son, while  confessing  the  deed,  to  fear  punishment  at  the  hand 
of  those  men  whom  he  delivered  by  the  deed  ? 

Grecian  nations  give  the  honors  of  the  gods  to  those  men 
who  have  slain  tyrants.  What  have  I  not  seen  at  Athens  ?  what 
in  the  other  cities  of  Greece  ?  What  divine  honors  have  I  not 
seen  paid  to  such  men?  What  odes,  what  songs  have  I  not 
heard  in  their  praise  ?  They  are  almost  consecrated  to  immor- 
tality in  the  memories  and  worship  of  men.  And  will  you  not 
only  abstain  from  conferring  any  honors  on  the  saviour  of  so 
great  a  people,  and  the  avenger  of  such  enormous  wickedness, 
but  will  you  even  allow  him  to  be  borne  off  for  punishment? 
He  would  confess ;  I  say,  if  he  had  done  it,  he  would  confess 
with  a  high  and  willing  spirit  that  he  had  done  it  for  the  sake 
of  the  general  liberty ;  a  thing  which  would  certainly  deserve 
not  only  to  be  confessed  by  him,  but  even  to  be  boasted  of. 

In  truth,  if  he  does  not  deny  an  action  from  which  he  seeks 
no  advantage  beyond  being  pardoned  for  having  done  it,  would 
he  hesitate  to  avow  an  action  for  which  he  would  be  entitled  to 
claim  rewards?  Unless  indeed  he  thinks  it  more  pleasing  to 
you  to  look  upon  him  as  having  been  the  defender  of  his  own 
life,  rather  than  of  you ;  especially  as  from  that  confession,  if 
you  were  to  choose  to  be  grateful,  he  would  reap  the  very  high- 


236  CICERO 

est  honors.  If  his  action  were  not  approved  of  by  you  (al- 
though, how  is  it  possible  that  anyone  should  not  approve  of 
what  secured  his  own  safety  ?),  but  still,  if  the  virtue  of  a  most 
gallant  man  had  happened  to  be  at  all  unpleasing  to  his  fellow- 
citizens,  then  with  a  lofty  and  firm  mind  he  would  depart  from 
an  ungrateful  city.  For  what  could  be  more  ungrateful  than  for 
all  other  men  to  be  rejoicing,  and  for  him  alone  to  be  mourning, 
to  whom  it  was  owing  that  the  rest  were  rejoicing  ?  Although 
we  have  all  at  all  times  been  of  this  disposition  with  respect  to 
crushing  traitors  to  our  country — that  since  the  glory  would  be 
ours,  we  should  consider  the  danger  and  the  unpopularity  ours 
also.  For  what  praise  should  I  have  deserved  to  have  given 
to  me,  when  I  showed  so  much  courage  in  my  consulship  on 
behalf  of  you  and  of  your  children,  if  I  had  supposed  that  I  could 
venture  on  the  exploits  which  I  was  attempting  without  very 
great  struggles  and  dangers  to  myself  ?  What  woman  is  there 
who  would  not  dare  to  slay  a  wicked  and  mischievous  citizen, 
if  she  was  not  afraid  of  the  danger  of  the  attempt?  But  the 
man  who,  though  unpopularity,  and  death,  and  punishment  are 
before  his  eyes,  still  ventures  to  defend  the  republic  with  no  less 
alacrity  than  if  no  such  evils  threatened  him,  he  deserves  to  be 
considered  really  a  man. 

It  behooves  a  grateful  people  to  reward  those  citizens  who 
have  deserved  well  of  the  republic ;  it  is  the  part  of  a  brave  man, 
not  to  be  so  moved  even  by  execution  itself,  as  to  repent  of  hav- 
ing acted  bravely.  Wherefore,  Titus  Annius  may  well  make 
the  same  confession  which  Ahala  made,  which  Nasica,  which 
Opimius,  which  Marius,  which  we  ourselves  have  made ;  and 
then,  if  the  republic  were  grateful,  he  would  rejoice ;  if  ungrate- 
ful, then,  though  under  the  pressure  of  heavy  misfortune,  he 
would  still  be  supported  by  his  own  conscience. 

But,  O  judges,  the  fortune  of  the  Roman  people,  and  your  fe- 
licity, and  the  immortal  gods,  all  think  that  they  are  entitled  to 
your  gratitude  for  this  service  which  has  been  thus  done  to  you. 
Nor,  indeed,  can  anyone  think  otherwise  except  it  be  a  man 
who  thinks  that  there  is  no  such  thing  at  all  as  any  divine  power 
or  authority — a  man  who  is  neither  moved  by  the  vastness  of 
your  empire,  nor  by  that  sun  above  us,  nor  by  the  motions  of 
heaven  and  of  the  stars,  nor  by  the  vicissitudes  and  regular 
order  of  things,  nor  (and  that  is  the  greatest  thing  of  all)  by  the 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO      237 

wisdom  of  our  ancestors ;  who  both  themselves  cultivated  with 
the  most  holy  reverence  the  sacred  rites  and  religious  ceremo- 
nies and  auspices,  and  also  handed  them  down  to  us  their  pos- 
terity to  be  so  cultivated  by  us. 

There  is,  there  is  indeed,  such  a  heavenly  power.  It  is  not 
the  truth,  that  in  these  bodies  and  in  this  feebleness  of  ours  there 
is  something  which  is  vigorous  and  endued  with  feeling,  and 
nothing  which  is  so  in  this  vast  and  beautiful  movement  of 
nature.  Unless  perhaps  some  people  think  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  in  existence  because  it  is  not  apparent,  nor  visible ;  just  as 
if  we  were  able  to  see  our  own  mind — that  by  which  we  are  wise, 
by  which  we  have  foresight,  by  which  we  do  and  say  these  very 
things  which  we  are  doing  and  saying ;  or  as  if  we  could  plainly 
feel  what  sort  of  thing  it  is,  or  where  it  is.  That  divine  power, 
that  very  same  divine  power  which  has  often  brought  incredible 
prosperity  and  power  to  this  city,  has  extinguished  and  de- 
stroyed this  mischief ;  by  first  of  all  inspiring  it  with  the  idea  of 
venturing  to  irritate  by  violence  and  to  attack  with  the  sword 
the  bravest  of  men,  and  so  leading  it  on  to  be  defeated  by  the 
man  whom  if  it  had  only  been  able  to  defeat  it  would  have  en- 
joyed endless  license  and  impunity.  That  result  was  brought 
about,  O  judges,  not  by  human  wisdom,  nor  even  by  any  mod- 
erate degree  of  care  on  the  part  of  the  immortal  gods.  In  truth, 
those  very  holy  places  themselves  which  beheld  that  monster 
fall,  appear  to  have  been  moved  themselves,  and  to  have  as- 
serted their  rights  over  him. 

I  implore  you,  I  call  you  to  witness — you,  I  say,  O  ye  Alban 
hills  and  groves,  and  you,  O  ye  altars  of  the  Albans,  now  over- 
thrown, but  nevertheless  partners  of  and  equals  in  honor  with 
the  sacred  rites  of  the  Roman  people — ye,  whom  that  man  with 
headlong  insanity,  having  cut  down  and  destroyed  the  most 
holy  groves,  had  overwhelmed  with  his  insane  masses  of  build- 
ings ;  it  was  your  power  then  that  prevailed,  it  was  the  divinity 
of  your  altars,  the  religious  reverence  due  to  you,  and  which 
he  had  profaned  by  every  sort  of  wickedness,  that  prevailed; 
and  you,  too,  O  sacred  Jupiter  of  Latium,  whose  lakes  and 
groves  and  boundaries  he  had  constantly  polluted  with  every 
sort  of  abominable  wickedness  and  debauchery,  you  at  last, 
from  your  high  and  holy  mountain,  opened  your  eyes  for  the 
purpose  of  punishing  him ;  it  is  to  you,  to  all  of  you,  that  those 


238  CICERO 

punishments,  late  indeed,  but  still  just  and  well  deserved,  have 
been  made  an  atonement  for  his  wickedness. 

Unless,  perchance,  we  are  to  say  that  it  was  by  accident  that 
it  happened  that  it  was  before  the  very  shrine  of  the  good  god- 
dess which  is  in  the  farm  of  Titus  Sextus  Gallius,  a  most  honor- 
able and  accomplished  young  man — before  the  good  goddess 
herself,  I  say,  that  when  he  had  begun  the  battle,  he  received 
that  first  wound  under  which  he  gave  up  that  foul  soul  of  his ; 
so  that  he  did  not  seem  to  have  been  acquitted  in  that  iniquitous 
trial,  but  only  to  have  been  reserved  for  this  conspicuous  pun- 
ishment. 

Nor,  indeed,  did  that  same  anger  of  the  gods  abstain  from 
inflicting  the  very  same  insanity  on  his  satellites,  so  that  with- 
out the  images  of  his  ancestors,  without  any  funeral  song  or 
funeral  games,  without  any  obsequies,  any  lamentation,  or  any 
panegyric — without,  in  short,  any  funeral  at  all,  smeared  over 
with  gore  and  mud,  and  deprived  even  of  the  honors  which  are 
paid  to  everyone  on  that  last  day,  and  which  even  enemies  are 
wont  to  allow  to  a  man,  he  was  cast  out  in  the  street  half  burnt. 
It  was  not  right,  I  suppose,  for  the  effigies  of  most  illustrious 
men  to  confer  any  honor  on  that  most  foul  parricide ;  nor  was 
there  any  place  in  which  it  was  more  seemly  that  his  corpse 
should  be  ill-treated  than  that  where  his  life  had  been  con- 
demned. 

I  swear  to  you,  the  fortune  of  the  Roman  people  appeared 
to  me  hard  and  cruel,  while  it  for  so  many  years  beheld  and  en- 
dured that  man  triumphing  over  the  republic.  He  had  pol- 
luted the  holiest  religious  observances  with  his  debauchery; 
he  had  broken  the  most  authoritative  decrees  of  the  Senate ; 
he  had  openly  bought  himself  from  the  judges  with  money ;  he 
had  harassed  the  Senate  in  his  tribuneship ;  he  had  rescinded 
acts  which  had  been  passed  for  the  sake  of  the  safety  of  the  re- 
public, by  the  consent  of  all  orders  of  the  state ;  he  had  driven 
me  from  my  country ;  he  had  plundered  my  property ;  he  had 
burnt  my  house ;  he  had  ill-treated  my  children  and  my  wife ; 
he  had  declared  a  wicked  war  against  Cnaeus  Pompeius ;  he  had 
made  slaughter  of  magistrates  and  private  individuals ;  he  had 
burnt  the  house  of  my  brother;  he  had  laid  waste  Etruria;  he 
had  driven  numbers  of  men  from  their  homes  and  their  profes- 
sions. He  kept  pursuing  and  oppressing  men ;  the  whole  state, 


SPEECH   IN   DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO 


239 


all  Italy,  all  the  provinces,  all  foreign  kingdoms  could  not  con- 
tain his  trenzy.  Laws  were  already  being  drawn  up  in  his 
house  which  were  to  hand  us  over  to  the  power  of  our  slaves. 
There  was  nothing  belonging  to  anyone,  which  he  had  taken 
a  fancy  to,  which  he  did  not  think  would  become  his  in  the 
course  of  this  year.  No  one  was  aa  obstacle  to  his  expecta- 
tions except  Milo ;  the  very  man  who  was  most  able  to  be  an 
obstacle  to  them  he  thought  when  he  returned  again  would  be 
reconciled  and,  as  it  were,  bound  to  him.  The  power  of  Caesar, 
he  said,  was  all  his  own.  The  inclinations  of  all  good  men  he 
had  treated  with  contempt,  while  accomplishing  my  ruin.  Milo 
alone  weighed  on  his  mind. 

On  this  the  immortal  gods,  as  I  have  said  before,  put  into  the 
head  of  that  abandoned  and  frantic  man  the  idea  of  laying  an 
ambush  for  Milo.  That  pest  was  not  to  perish  any  other  way : 
the  republic  would  never  have  chastened  him  by  her  laws.  The 
Senate,  I  suppose,  would  have  been  able  to  restrain  him  when 
praetor.  Why,  it  had  not  been  able  to  do  anything  when  it 
tried  to  restrain  him  while  a  private  individual.  Would  the 
consuls  have  been  vigorous  in  bridling  a  praetor?  In  the  first 
place,  if  Milo  had  been  slain,  he  would  have  had  his  own  con- 
suls. Secondly,  what  consul  would  have  behaved  fearlessly 
against  him  as  praetor,  who  remembered  that  he,  when  tribune, 
had  offered  the  most  cruel  injuries  to  the  virtue  of  the  consuls? 
He  would  have  oppressed  everything;  he  would  have  taken 
possession  and  held  possession  of  everything.  By  a  new  law, 
the  draft  of  which  was  found  in  his  house,  with  the  rest  of  the 
Clodian  laws,  he  would  have  made  all  our  slaves  his  own  freed- 
men.  Lastly,  if  the  immortal  gods  had  not  inspired  him  with 
such  ideas  that  he,  an  effeminate  creature,  attempted  to  slay  a 
most  gallant  man,  you  would  have  no  republic  at  all  this  day. 
Would  that  man  when  praetor,  much  more  when  consul,  pro- 
vided only  that  these  temples  and  these  walls  could  have  stood 
so  long  if  he  had  been  alive,  and  could  have  remained  till  his 
consulship ;  would  he,  I  say,  if  alive,  have  done  no  harm,  when 
even  after  he  was  dead  he  burned  the  senate-house,  one  of  his 
satellites,  Sextus  Clodius,  being  the  ringleader  in  the  tumult  ? 
What  more  miserable,  more  grievous,  more  bitter  sight  have 
we  ever  seen  than  that  ?  that  that  temple  of  sanctity,  of  honor, 
of  wisdom,  of  the  public  council,  the  head  of  the  city,  the  altar 


240  CICERO 

of  the  allies,  the  harbor  of  all  nations,  the  abode  granted  by  the 
universal  Roman  people  to  one  of  the  orders  of  the  state,  should 
be  burnt,  profaned,  and  destroyed?13  and  that  that  should  be 
done,  not  by  an  ignorant  mob,  although  that  would  have  been 
a  miserable  thing,  but  by  one  single  person  ?  who,  if  he  dared 
so  much  in  his  character  of  burner  of  a  dead  man,  what  would 
he  not  have  done  as  standard-bearer  of  a  living  one  ?  He  se- 
lected the  senate-house,  of  all  the  places  in  the  city,  to  throw 
him  down  in,  in  order  that  when  dead  he  might  burn  what  he 
had  overturned  while  alive. 

And  are  there  men,  then,  who  complain  of  what  took  place 
in  the  Appian  road,  and  say  nothing  of  what  happened  in  the 
senate-house?  and  who  think  that  the  forum  could  have  been 
defended  from  him  when  alive,  whose  very  corpse  the  senate- 
house  was  unable  to  resist  ?  Arouse  the  man  himself ;  resusci- 
tate him,  if  you  can,  from  the  shades  below.  Will  you  be  able 
to  check  his  violence  when  alive,  when  you  were  hardly  able  to 
support  his  fury  while  he  lies  unburied?  unless,  indeed,  you  did 
support  the  sight  of  those  men  who  ran  with  firebrands  to  the 
senate-house,  with  scythes  to  the  temple  of  Castor,  and  \vho 
ranged  over  the  whole  forum  sword  in  hand.  You  saw  the 
Roman  people  slaughtered,  you  saw  the  assembly  disturbed  by 
the  drawn  swords,  while  Marcus  Ccelius,  a  tribune  of  the  peo- 
ple, was  listened  to  in  silence,  a  man  of  the  greatest  courage  in 
the  affairs  of  state,  of  the  greatest  firmness  in  any  cause  which 
he  undertook,  wholly  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  virtuous  part 
of  the  citizens,  and  to  the  authority  of  the  Senate,  and  in  this — 
shall  I  say  unpopularity,  or  misfortune  of  Milo's?  behaving 
with  singular,  and  godlike,  and  incredible  good  faith. 

But  I  have  said  enough  about  the  cause;  and,  perhaps,  too 
much  that  was  foreign  to  the  cause.  What  remains,  except  for 
me  to  pray  and  entreat  you,  O  judges,  to  show  that  mercy  to  a 
most  gallant  man,  which  he  himself  does  not  implore;  but 
which  I,  even  against  his  will,  implore  and  demand  in  his  be- 
half? Do  not,  if  amid  the  tears  of  all  of  us  you  have  seen  no 
tears  shed  by  Milo — if  you  see  his  countenance  always  the  same, 
his  voice  and  language  steady  and  unaltered — do  not,  on  that 
account,  be  the  less  inclined  to  spare  him.  I  know  not  whether 
he  does  not  deserve  to  be  assisted  all  the  more  on  that  account. 

13  See  note  4  on  page  205. 


SPEECH   IN  DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO      241 

In  truth,  if  in  the  battles  of  gladiators,  and  in  the  case  of  men 
of  the  very  lowest  class  and  condition  and  fortune,  we  are  ac- 
customed to  dislike  those  who  are  timid  and  suppliant,  and  who 
pray  to  be  allowed  to  live,  and  if  we  wish  to  save  those  who  are 
brave  and  courageous,  and  who  offer  themselves  cheerfully  to 
death ;  and  if  we  feel  more  pity  for  those  men  who  do  not  ask 
our  pity,  than  for  those  who  entreat  it ;  how  much  more  ought 
we  to  nourish  those  feelings  in  the  case  of  our  bravest  citizens  ? 
As  for  me,  O  judges,  I  am  dispirited  and  almost  killed  by  those 
expressions  of  Milo,  which  I  hear  continually,  and  at  the  utter- 
ance of  which  I  am  daily  present :  "  May  my  fellow-citizens 
fare  well,"  says  he ;  "  may  they  fare  well.  May  they  be  safe, 
and  prosperous,  and  happy;  may  this  illustrious  city,  and  my 
country,  which  I  love  so  well,  long  endure,  however  it  may  treat 
me ;  may  my  fellow-citizens  (since  I  may  not  enjoy  it  with  them) 
enjoy  the  republic  in  tranquillity  without  me,  but  still  in  conse- 
quence of  my  conduct,  I  will  submit,  and  depart ;  if  it  cannot  be 
allowed  me  to  enjoy  a  virtuous  republic,  at  least  I  shall  be  at 
a  distance  from  a  bad  one ;  and  the  first  well-regulated  and  free 
city  that  I  arrive  at,  in  that  will  I  rest.  Oh,  how  vain,"  says  he, 
"  are  the  labors  which  I  have  undertaken !  Oh,  how  fallacious 
have  been  my  hopes !  Oh,  how  empty  all  my  thoughts !  When 
as  tribune  of  the  people,  when  the  republic  was  oppressed,  I 
had  devoted  myself  to  the  Senate,  which,  when  I  came  into 
office,  was  utterly  extinct ;  and  to  the  Roman  knights,  whose 
power  was  enfeebled,  and  to  the  virtuous  part  of  the  citizens, 
who  had  given  up  all  their  authority  under  the  arms  of  Clodius ; 
could  I  ever  have  thought  that  I  should  fail  to  find  protection 
from  the  citizens  ?  When  I  had  restored  you  "  (for  he  very 
frequently  converses  with  me  and  addresses  me)  "  to  your  coun- 
try, could  I  ever  suppose  that  I  myself  should  have  no  place 
in  my  country  ?  Where  now  is  the  Senate  which  we  followed  ? 
where  are  those  Roman  knights,  those  knights,"  says  he,  "  so 
devoted  to  you  ?  where  is  the  zeal  of  the  municipal  towns  ?  where 
is  the  voice  of  Italy  ?  what,  above  all,  has  become  of  that  voice 
of  yours,  O  Marcus  Tullius,  which  has  been  an  assistance  to 
many ;  what  has  become  of  your  voice  and  defensive  eloquence? 
am  I  the  only  person  whom  it  is  unable  to  help,  I  who  have  so 
often  exposed  myself  to  death  for  your  sake  ?  " 

Nor  does  he  say  these  things  to  me,  O  judges,  weeping,  as  I 
16 


242 


CICERO 


now  repeat  them  ;  but  with  the  same  unmoved  countenance  that 
you  behold.  For  he  says,  he  never  did  all  the  things  which  he 
had  done  for  citizens  who  are  ungrateful ;  ungrateful,  he  says, 
they  are  not.  That  they  are  timid,  and  thinking  too  much  of 
every  danger  he  does  not  deny.  He  says  that  he  treated  the  com- 
mon people,  and  that  multitude  of  the  lower  class  which,  while 
they  had  Publius  Clodius  for  their  leader,  threatened  the  safety 
of  all  of  you,  in  such  a  way,  in  order  to  render  all  your  lives  more 
secure ;  that  he  not  only  subdued  it  by  his  virtue,  but  won  it  over 
at  the  expense  of  three  estates  which  he  inherited.  Nor  has  he 
any  apprehension  that,  while  he  was  conciliating  the  common 
people  by  his  liberality,  he  was  not  also  securing  your  attach- 
ment by  his  singular  services  to  the  republic.  He  says  that  the 
good-will  of  the  Senate  toward  him  has  been  repeatedly  exper- 
ienced by  him  in  the  times  that  have  lately  gone  by ;  and  that 
he  shall  carry  with  him,  and  ever  retain  in  his  recollection,  the 
way  in  which  you  and  all  your  order  flocked  to  meet  him,  the 
zeal  you  showed  in  his  behalf,  and  the  kindness  of  your  lan- 
guage to  him,  whatever  may  be  the  destiny  which  fortune  allots 
to  him.  He  remembers,  also,  that  the  voice  of  the  crier,  pro- 
claiming his  triumph,  was  the  only  thing  wanting  to  him ;  but 
that  he  was  declared  consul  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  was  the  great  object  of  his  ambition.  And  now  if 
all  these  things  are  to  go  against  him,  it  will  be  only  the  suspic- 
ion of  guilt,  not  the  reality  of  any  crime  which  has  injured  him. 
He  adds  this,  which  is  unquestionably  true ;  that  brave  and  wise 
men  are  not  in  the  habit  of  setting  their  hearts  so  much  on  the 
rewards  for  virtuous  conduct,  as  on  the  fact  of  their  conduct 
being  so  ;  that  he  has  never  acted  throughout  his  life  in  any  but 
the  most  honorable  manner,  since  there  can  be  nothing  better 
for  a  man  to  do  than  to  deliver  his  country  from  dangers ;  that 
those  men  are  happy  for  whom  such  conduct  procures  honor 
among  their  fellow-citizens,  but  yet,  that  those  men  are  not 
miserable  who  have  exceeded  their  fellow-citizens  in  good 
deeds.  Moreover,  that  of  all  the  rewards  of  virtue,  if  one  is  to 
make  an  estimate  of  the  different  rewards,  the  most  honorable 
of  all  is  glory;  that  this  is  the  only  reward  which  can  make 
amends  for  the  shortness  of  life,  by  the  recollection  of  posterity ; 
which  can  cause  us  while  absent  to  be  present,  when  dead  to  be 
still  alive ;  that  this  is  the  thing  by  the  steps  of  which  men  appear 
to  mount  even  to  heaven. 


SPEECH  IN   DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS  MILO      243 

"  Concerning  me,"  says  he,  "  the  Roman  people  and  all  na- 
tions will  be  continually  talking.  The  remotest  ages  will  never 
be  silent  about  me.  Even  at  this  very  time  when  the  firebrands 
of  envy  are  being  hurled  against  me  by  my  enemies,  still  I  am 
celebrated  in  every  company  of  men,  who  express  their  thanks 
to  me,  who  congratulate  themselves  on  my  conduct,  who  make 
me  the  sole  topic  of  their  conversation.  I  say  nothing  of  the 
days  of  festival,  and  sacrifice,  and  joyful  celebration  in  Etruria. 
This  is  the  hundredth,  or  I  rather  think  the  hundred  and  first 
day  since  the  death  of  Publius  Clodius ;  a  day  on  which,  wher- 
ever the  boundaries  of  the  Roman  Empire  extend,  there  did  not 
only  the  report  of,  but  the  joy  caused  by  that  occurrence  pene- 
trate. Wherefore,"  said  he,  "  I  am  not  anxious  as  to  where  this 
body  of  mine  may  be ;  since  the  glory  of  my  name  already  is  and 
always  will  be  in  every  country  upon  earth." 

This  is  what  you  have  constantly  said  to  me,  O  Milo,  when 
these  men  who  hear  me  now  have  been  absent ;  but  this  is  what 
I  say  to  you  when  they  are  present  to  listen.  I  cannot,  indeed, 
praise  you  sufficiently  for  being  of  such  a  spirit  as  you  are ;  but 
the  more  godlike  that  virtue  of  yours  is,  the  greater  is  the  pain 
which  I  feel  at  being  separated  from  you.  Nor,  indeed,  if  you 
are  taken  from  me,  will  the  complaints,  which  are  all  that  is  left 
to  me,  do  anything  to  comfort  me,  or  to  prevent  my  being  angry 
with  those  men  from  whom  I  have  received  so  severe  a  blow. 
For  it  is  not  my  enemies  who  will  tear  you  from  me,  but  those 
who  are  my  greatest  friends.  It  is  not  men  who  have  at  times 
deserved  ill  at  my  hands,  but  those  who  have  always  deserved 
exceedingly  well.  You  never,  O  judges,  will  inflict  such  grief 
upon  me  (although,  what  grief  can  be  so  great  as  this?),  but 
you  will  never  inflict  this  particular  grief  upon  me,  of  forcing 
me  to  forget  how  greatly  you  have  always  regarded  me.  And 
if  you,  yourselves,  have  forgotten  it,  or  if  any  part  of  my  con- 
duct has  offended  you,  why  do  you  not  make  me  atone  for  that 
offence  rather  than  Milo?  For  I  shall  have  lived  gloriously 
enough  if  I  die  before  seeing  any  such  great  misfortune  happen 
to  him. 

At  present  one  consolation  supports  me,  that  no  exertion 
that  affection,  or  that  zeal,  or  that  gratitude  could  possibly 
make  has  been  wanting  on  my  part  to  promote  your  interest, 
O  Titus  Annius.  For  your  sake  I  have  courted  the  enmity  of 


244  CICERO 

powerful  citizens ;  I  have  repeatedly  exposed  my  person  and  my 
life  to  the  weapons  of  your  enemies ;  I  have  thrown  myself  as  a 
suppliant  at  the  feet  of  many  for  your  sake ;  I  have  considered 
my  fortunes  and  those  of  my  children  as  united  with  yours  in 
the  time  of  your  necessities.  Lastly,  on  this  very  day,  if  any 
violence  is  prepared  against  you,  or  any  struggle,  or  any  dan- 
ger of  death,  I  claim  my  share  in  that.  What  remains  now  ? 
What  is  there  that  I  can  say,  or  that  I  can  do  in  return  for  your 
services  to  me,  except  considering  whatever  fortune  is  yours 
mine  also?  I  do  not  object,  I  do  not  refuse  so  to  consider  it. 
And  I  entreat  you,  O  judges,  either  to  add  to  the  kindnesses 
which  you  have  already  conferred  on  me  by  granting  me  this 
man's  safety,  or  else  to  take  notice  that  they  will  all  perish  in 
his  fall.  ' 

These  tears  of  mine  have  no  effect  on  Milo.  He  is  of  an  in- 
credible strength  of  mind.  He  thinks  that  any  place  where 
there  is  no  room  for  virtue  is  a  place  of  banishment ;  and  death 
he  considers  the  end  appointed  by  nature,  and  not  a  punish- 
ment. Let  him  continue  to  cherish  these  ideas  in  which  he  was 
born.  What  will  you  think  yourselves,  O  judges?  What  will 
be  your  feelings?  Will  you  preserve  the  recollection  of  Milo, 
and  drive  away  the  man  himself  ?  And  will  you  allow  any  place 
in  the  whole  earth  to  be  more  worthy  to  receive  this  virtue  of 
his  than  this  place  which  produced  him  ?  You,  you,  I  appeal  to 
you,  O  you  brave  men,  who  have  shed  much  of  your  blood  for 
the  sake  of  the  republic.  I  appeal  to  you,  O  centurions,  and  to 
you,  O  soldiers,  in  this  time  of  danger  to  a  brave  man  and  an 
invincible  citizen.  While  you  are  not  only  looking  on,  but 
armed,  and  standing  as  guards  around  this  court  of  justice, 
shall  this  mighty  virtue  be  driven  from  the  city,  be  banished, 
be  cast  out? 

Oh,  miserable  man  that  I  am  !  Oh,  unhappy  man  that  I  am  ! 
Were  you,  O  Milo,  able  through  the  instrumentality  of  these 
men  to  recall  me  to  my  country,  and  cannot  I  through  the 
agency  of  the  very  same  men  even  retain  you  in  yours  ?  What 
answer  shall  I  make  to  my  children,  who  consider  you  a  second 
father  ?  What  answer  shall  I  make  to  you,  O  my  brother  Quin- 
tus,  you  who  are  now  absent,  you  who  were  my  companion  in 
that  cruel  time?  Shall  I  reply  that  I  was  unable  to  preserve 
the  safety  of  Milo  by  the  instrumentality  of  those  very  men  by 


SPEECH   IN   DEFENCE  OF  TITUS  ANNIUS   MILO 


245 


whose  means  he  had  preserved  mine  ?  And  what  is  the  cause 
in  which  I  shall  have  failed  to  do  so  ?  One  which  is  sanctioned 
by  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  From  whom  must  I  say  that  I 
failed  to  procure  it  ?  From  those  very  men  who  of  all  others 
have  gained  the  greatest  tranquillity  by  the  death  of  Publius 
Clodius.  And  who  will  it  be  who  has  entreated  in  vain?  I. 
What  great  wickedness  is  it  that  I  planned,  what  enormous 
crime  did  I  commit,  O  judges,  when  I  traced  out,  and  laid  open, 
and  revealed,  and  forever  crushed  those  beginnings  and  signs 
of  the  general  destruction  that  was  intended  ?  For  that  is  the 
spring  from  which  all  the  distresses  of  myself  and  my  friends 
arise.  Why  did  you  wish  me  to  return  to  my  country  ?  Was 
it  in  order  that  I  might  look  on  while  those  men  were  being 
driven  out,  by  whose  efforts  I  had  been  restored?  Do  not,  I 
entreat  you,  suffer  my  return  to  be  more  miserable  than  even 
my  departure  was.  For  how  can  I  think  that  I  have  been  re- 
stored if  I  am  torn  from  those  men  by  whom  I  was  restored  ? 

Would  that  the  immortal  gods  had  granted  (I  must  entreat 
your  permission  to  say  it,  O  my  country,  for  I  fear  lest  it  should 
be  a  wicked  wish  as  far  as  you  are  concerned,  though  it  may  be 
a  pious  one  for  Milo) — would  that  they  had  granted  that  Pub- 
lius Clodius  should  not  only  be  alive,  but  should  even  be  praetor, 
consul,  dictator,  rather  than  I  should  see  his  sight !  O  ye  im- 
mortal gods,  before  I  should  see  this  brave  man,  this  man  who 
deserves  to  be  saved  by  you,  O  judges,  in  this  plight !  "  Say 
not  so,  say  not  so,"  says  Milo.  "  Rather  let  him  have  suffered 
the  penalty  which  he  deserved,  and  let  us,  if  so  it  must  be,  suffer 
what  we  have  not  deserved." 

Shall  this  man,  born  for  his  country,  die  in  any  other  land 
except  his  country?  or,  as  it  may  perchance  turn  out,  for  his 
country?  Will  you  preserve  the  monuments  of  this  man's 
courage,  and  yet  allow  no  sepulchre  containing  his  body  to  ex- 
ist in  Italy  ?  Will  anyone  by  his  vote  banish  this  man  from  this 
city,  when  all  other  cities  will  gladly  invite  him  to  them  if  he  is 
driven  out  from  among  you  ?  O  happy  will  that  land  be  which 
shall  receive  him !  Ungrateful  will  this  land  be  if  it  banishes 
him  ;  miserable  if  it  loses  him. 

However,  I  must  make  an  end.  Nor,  indeed,  can  I  speak 
any  longer  for  weeping ;  and  this  man  forbids  me  to  defend  him 
by  tears.  I  pray  and  entreat  you,  O  judges,  when  you  are  giv- 


246  CICERO 

ing  your  votes,  to  dare  to  decide  as  you  think  just.  And  believe 
me  that  man  14  will  be  sure  greatly  to  approve  of  your  virtue, 
and  justice,  and  good  faith ;  who,  in  selecting  the  judges,  se- 
lected all  the  best,  and  wisest,  and  most  fearless  men  whom  he 
could  find.15 

14  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  deavored  to  raise  some  public  commo- 
M  Milo,  as  has  been  said  before,  was  tion  in  favor  of  Pompey,  between  whom 
convicted  by  a  majority  of  thirty-eight  and  Caesar  (who  was  in  his  second  con- 
to  thirteen,  though  Cato  voted  openly  sulship)  the  civil  war  was  just  breaking 
for  his  acquittal.  He  went  into  exile  out.  But  he  and  Ccelius  were  both 
to  Marseilles.  Some  years  afterward,  killed  by  the  soldiers  with  whom  they 
A.U.C.  706,  Ccelius,  when  praetor,  re-  were  tampering, 
called  him  from  banishment,  and  en- 


SPEECH 

IN    DEFENCE    OF 
CAIUS    RABIRIUS    POSTUMUS 


THE  ARGUMENT 

When  Gabinius,  the  colleague  of  Piso,  returned  from  his  province 
of  Syria,  he  was  prosecuted  on  two  indictments;  in  the  first  prosecu- 
tion Cicero  appeared  as  a  witness  against  him;  but  he  was  acquitted, 
as  Cicero  says  in  his  letters  to  his  brother  Quintus,  in  consequence  of 
the  stupidity  of  Lentulus,  the  prosecutor,  and  the  great  exertion  of 
Pompey,  and  the  corruption  of  the  judges.  In  the  second  prosecu- 
tion Cicero  was  prevailed  on  by  Pompey  to  defend  him;  but  he  was 
condemned  to  perpetual  banishment 

The  trial  of  Caius  Rabirius  Postumus,  a  Roman  knight,  arose  out 
of  that  trial  of  Gabinius.  It  had  been  one  of  the  articles  against  him, 
that  he  had  received  an  enormous  sum  for  restoring  Ptolemy  to  his 
kingdom  of  Egypt;  but  when  he  was  convicted,  his  estate  was  found 
inadequate  to  meet  the  damages  which  he  was  condemned  to  pay, 
and  the  deficiency  was  now  demanded  from  those  through  whose 
hands  the  management  of  his  money  affairs  had  passed,  and  who  were 
supposed  to  have  been  sharers  in  the  spoil;  and  of  these  men  the  chief 
was  Rabirius,  who  was  now  accused  of  having  advised  Gabinius  to 
undertake  Ptolemy's  restoration;  of  having  accompanied  him;  of 
having  been  employed  by  him  to  solicit  the  payment  of  the  money, 
and  of  having  lived  at  Alexandria  for  that  purpose  in  the  king's  service 
as  the  public  receiver  of  the  king's  taxes,  and  wearing  the  dress  of  an 
Egyptian.  The  prosecution  was  instituted  under  the  provisions  of 
the  Lex  Julia,  concerning  extortion  and  peculation.  It  was  conducted 
by  Caius  Memmius  Gemellus.  Rabirius  was  acquitted;  and,  though 
it  was  to  please  Pompey  that  Cicero  had  undertaken  his  defence,  he 
afterwards  attached  himself  to  Caesar,  and  was  employed  by  him  in 
the  war  in  Africa  and  in  Sicily. 


248 


SPEECH 
IN  DEFENCE  OF  CA1US  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS 

IF  there  is  anyone,  O  judges,  who  thinks  Caius  Rabirius 
to  be  blamed  for  having  intrusted  his  securely  founded 
and  well-established  fortunes  to  the  power  and  caprice  of 
a  sovereign,  he  may  back  his  opinion  by  a  reference  not  only  to 
mine,  but  also  to  the  feelings  of  the  man  himself  who  did  so. 
For  there  is  no  one  who  is  more  grieved  at  the  line  of  conduct 
which  he  then  adopted  than  he  is  himself.  Although  we  are 
very  much  in  the  habit  of  judging  of  the  wisdom  of  a  plan 
by  the  result,  and  of  saying  that  the  man  whose  designs  have 
succeeded  has  shown  a  great  deal  of  foresight,  and  that  he  who 
has  failed  has  shown  none  at  all.  If  the  king  had  had  any 
honesty,  nothing  would  have  been  considered  more  sagacious 
than  the  conduct  of  Postumus ;  but  because  the  king  deceived 
him  he  is  said  to  have  acted  as  madly  as  possible;  so  that  it 
appears  now  that  nothing  is  a  proof  of  a  man  being  wise,  un- 
less he  can  foresee  the  future. 

But  still,  if  there  be  anyone  who  thinks  that  Postumus's 
conduct,  whether  it  proceeded  from  a  vain  hope,  or  from  a 
hot  sufficiently  considered  calculation,  or  (to  use  the  strongest 
possible  terms)  from  pure  rashness,  deserves  to  be  blamed,  I 
will  not  object  to  his  entertaining  that  opinion.  But  I  do 
beg  this,  that  as  he  sees  that  his  designs  have  been  punished 
with  the  greatest  cruelty  by  fortune  herself,  he  will  not  think 
it  necessary  to  add  any  additional  bitterness  to  the  ruin  with 
which  he  is  already  overwhelmed.  It  is  quite  enough  not  to 
help  to  set  men  up  again  who  have  fallen  through  imprudence ; 
but  to  press  down  those  already  fallen,  or  to  increase  their  im- 
petus when  falling,  is  unquestionably  most  barbarous.  Espe- 
cially, O  judges,  when  this  principle  is  almost  implanted  by 
nature  in  the  race  of  man,  that  those  men  who  are  of  a  family 

249 


250 


CICERO 


which  considerable  glory  has  already  distinguished,  should  with 
the  greatest  eagerness  pursue  the  same  path  as  their  ancestors, 
seeing  that  the  virtue  of  their  fathers  is  celebrated  in  the 
recollection  and  conversation  of  all  men ;  just  as  not  only  did 
Scipio  imitate  Paullus  in  his  renown  gained  by  military  ex- 
ploits; not  only  did  his  son  imitate  Maximus;  but  his  own 
son  also  imitated  Decius  in  the  devotion  of  his  life,  and  the 
exact  manner  of  his  death.  Let  small  things,  O  judges,  be 
compared  in  this  way  to  great  things. 

For,  when  we  were  children,  this  man's  father,  Caius  Curius, 
was  a  most  gallant  chief  of  the  equestrian  order,  and  a  most 
extensive  farmer  of  the  public  revenues,  a  man  whose  great- 
ness of  spirit  as  displayed  in  carrying  on  his  business  men 
would  not  have  so  greatly  esteemed,  if  an  incredible  kindness 
had  not  also  distinguished  him ;  so  that  while  increasing  his 
property,  he  seemed  not  so  much  to  be  seeking  to  gratify  his 
avarice,  as  to  procure  additional  means  for  exerting  his  kind- 
ness. My  client,  being  this  man's  son,  although  he  had  never 
seen  his  father,  still  under  the  guidance  of  nature  herself — 
who  is  a  very  powerful  guide — and  instigated  by  the  continual 
conversation  of  everyone  in  his  family,  was  naturally  led  on 
to  adopt  a  similar  line  of  conduct  to  that  of  his  father.  He 
engaged  in  extensive  business.  He  entered  into  many  con- 
tracts. He  took  a  great  share  of  the  public  revenues.  He 
trusted  different  nations.  His  transactions  spread  over  many 
provinces.  He  devoted  himself  also  to  the  service  of  kings. 
He  had  already  previously  lent  a  large  sum  of  money  to  this 
very  king  of  Alexandria;  and  in  the  mean  time  he  never 
ceased  enriching  his  friends ;  sending  them  on  commissions ; 
giving  them  a  share  in  his  contracts ;  increasing  their  estates, 
or  supporting  them  with  his  credit.  Why  need  I  say  more? 
He  gave  a  faithful  representation  of  his  father's  career  and 
habits  of  life  in  his  own  magnanimity  and  liberality. 

In  the  mean  time,  Ptolemaeus  being  expelled  from  his  king- 
dom with  treachery,  with  evil  designs  (as  the  Sibyl  said,  an 
expression  of  which  Postumus  found  out  the  meaning)  came 
to  Rome.  This  unhappy  man  lent  him  money,  as  he  was  in 
want  and  asked  for  it ;  and  that  was  not  the  first  time  (for  he 
had  lent  him  money  before  while  he  was  king,  without  seeing 
him).  And  he  thought  that  he  was  not  lending  his  money 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS   RABIRIUS   POSTUMUS          251 

rashly,  because  no  one  doubted  that  he  would  be  restored  to 
his  kingdom  by  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome.  But  he  went 
still  farther  in  making  him  presents  and  loans.  And  he  lent 
him  not  his  own  money  only,  but  also  that  of  his  friends.  A 
very  foolish  thing  to  do — who  denies  it?  at  all  events,  who  is 
there  who  does  not  now  remind  him  of  it?  How  could  one 
think  that  a  sensible  proceeding  which  has  turned  out  ill? 
But  it  is  difficult  not  to  carry  out  to  the  end  a  line  of  conduct 
which  one  has  begun  with  sanguine  hopes. 

The  king  was  a  suppliant  to  him.  He  asked  him  every 
sort  of  favor ;  he  promised  him  every  sort  of  recompense.  So 
that  Postumus  was  at  last  compelled  to  fear  that  he  might  lose 
what  he  had  already  lent,  if  he  put  a  stop  to  his  loans.  But 
no  one  could  possibly  be  more  affable,  no  one  could  be  more 
kind  than  the  king;  so  that  it  was  easier  to  repent  having  be- 
gun to  lend  than  to  find  out  how  to  stop. 

Here  first  rises  a  charge  against  my  client.  They  say  that 
the  Senate  was  bribed.  O  ye  immortal  gods !  is  this  that  much- 
desired  impartiality  of  the  courts  of  justice?  Those  who  have 
bribed  us  are  put  on  their  trial,  we  who  have  been  bribed  are 
exposed  to  no  such  dangers.  What,  then,  shall  I  do?  Shall 
I  here  defend  the  Senate,  O  judges?  I  ought,  indeed,  to  do  so 
here  and  everywhere,  so  well  has  that  body  deserved  at  my 
hands.  But  that  is  not  the  question  at  the  present  moment ; 
nor  is  that  affair  in  the  least  connected  with  the  cause  of  Pos- 
tumus. Although  money  was  supplied  by  Postumus  for  the 
expense  of  his  journey,  and  for  the  splendor  of  his  appoint- 
ments, and  for  the  royal  retinue,  and  though  contracts  were 
drawn  up  in  the  Alban  villa  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  when  he 
left  Rome;  still  he  who  supplied  the  money  had  no  right  to  ask 
on  what  he  who  received  the  money  was  spending  it.  For 
he  was  lending  it  not  to  a  robber,  but  to  a  king;  nor  to  a 
king  who  was  an  enemy  of  the  Roman  people,  but  to  him 
whose  return  to  his  kingdom  he  saw  was  granted  to  him  by 
the  Senate,  and  intrusted  to  the  consul  to  provide  for;  nor 
to  a  king  who  was  a  stranger  to  this  empire,  but  to  one  with 
whom  he  had  seen  a  treaty  made  in  the  Capitol. 

But  if  the  man  who  lends  money  is  to  blame,  and  not  the 
man  who  has  made  a  scandalous  use  of  the  money  which  has 
been  lent  to  him,  then  let  that  man  be  condemned  who  has 


252  CICERO 

made  a  sword  and  sold  it,  and  not  the  man  who  with  that 
sword  has  slain  a  citizen.  Wherefore,  neither  you,  O  Caius 
Memmius,  ought  to  wish  the  Senate,  to  support  the  authority 
of  which  you  have  devoted  yourself  from  your  youth  upward, 
to  labor  under  such  disrepute,  nor  ought  I  to  speak  in  defence 
of  conduct  which  is  not  the  subject  of  the  present  inquiry. 
For  the  cause  of  Postumus,  whatever  it  is,  is  at  all  events  un- 
connected with  the  cause  of  the  Senate.  And  if  I  show  that 
it  has  no  connection  with  Gabinius  either,  then  certainly  you 
will  have  not  a  leg  to  stand  upon. 

For  this  cause  is  an  inquiry,  "  What  has  become  of  the 
money  ?  "  a  sort  of  appendix  as  it  were  to  an  action  which  has 
been  already  decided,  and  in  which  a  man  has  been  convicted. 
An  action  was  brought  successfully  against  Aulus  Gabinius, 
and  he  was  condemned  in  damages ;  but  no  securities  were 
given  for  the  payment  of  them,  nor  did  the  people  get  out  of 
his  property  a  sum  sufficient  for  the  payment  of  those  dam- 
ages. The  law  is  impartial.  The  Julian  law  orders  that  requisi- 
tion should  be  made  on  those  who  received  the  money  which  the 
culprit  may  have  obtained.  If  this  is  a  new  provision  in  the 
Julian  law — as  there  are  many  clauses  of  a  severer  and  stricter 
tendency  than  those  which  are  found  in  the  ancient  laws — let  us 
also  have  this  new  description  of  tribunal  before  which  to  prose- 
cute the  inquiry.  But  if  this  clause  is  transferred  word  for  word 
not  only  from  the  Cornelian  law  but  from  the  Servilian  law, 
which  is  older  still;  then,  in  the  name  of  the  immortal  gods,  what 
is  it  that  we  are  doing,  O  judges?  Or  what  is  this  new  prin- 
ciple of  new  legal  proceedings  that  we  are  introducing  into 
the  republic?  For  the  ancient  mode  of  proceeding  was  well 
'.known  to  all  of  you,  and  if  practice  is  the  best  of  teachers 
it  ought  to  be  known  to  me  above  all  men.  For  I  have  prose- 
cuted men  for  extortion  and  peculation ;  I  have  sat  as  judge ; 
I  have  conducted  inquiries  as  praetor;  I  have  defended  many 
men;  there  is  no  step  in  such  proceedings  which  can  give 
a  man  any  facility  in  speaking  in  which  I  have  not  taken  a 
part. 

This  is  what  I  assert :  That  no  one  ever  was  put  on  his  trial 
on  the  formula,  "  What  had  become  of  that  money,"  who  had 
not  been  summoned  as  a  witness  on  the  action  for  damages. 
But  in  the  action  in  this  instance,  no  one  was  summoned  ex- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS         253 

cept  in  consequence  of  something  said  by  witnesses,  or  some- 
thing which  appeared  in  the  accounts  of  private  individuals, 
or  in  the  accounts  of  the  cities.  Therefore,  when  actions  were 
being  brought,  those  men  were  usually  present  who  had  some 
apprehension  about  themselves;  and  then  when  they  were 
summoned,  then,  if  they  thought  it  advantageous  for  them, 
they  proceeded  at  once  to  contradict  what  had  been  said.  But 
if  they  were  afraid  of  unpopularity,  because  the  facts  in  ques- 
tion were  recent,  they  answered  at  some  future  time;  and 
when  they  had  done  this,  many  of  them  gained  their  object. 

But  this  is  quite  a  novel  way  of  managing  business,  and 
one  utterly  unheard  of  before  this  time.  In  the  previous  ac- 
tion Postumus's  name  never  once  occurs.  In  the  action,  do  I 
say?  You  yourselves,  O  judges,  lately  sat  as  judges  on  Aulus 
Gabinius.  Did  any  one  witness  then  mention  Postumus?  Any 
witness?  did  ever  the  prosecutor  name  him?  Did  you,  in 
short,  in  the  whole  of  that  trial  once  hear  the  name  of  Pos- 
tumus ? 

Postumus,  then,  is  nqt  an  additional  criminal  implicated 
in  the  cause  which  has  been  already  decided.  But  still  one 
Roman  knight  has  been  dragged  before  the  court  as  a  defend- 
ant, on  a  charge  of  extortion  and  peculation.  On  what  ac- 
count-books is  this  charge  founded?  On  some  which  were 
not  read  on  the  trial  of  Aulus  Gabinius.  By  what  witness  is 
it  suported?  By  someone  who  never  once  mentioned  his 
name  at  that  time.  On  the  sentence  of  what  arbitrator  do 
they  reply?  On  one  in  which  no  mention  whatever  was  made 
of  Postumus.  In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  what  law  ? 
Of  one  under  which  he  is  not  liable. 

Here  now,  O  judges,  the  affair  is  one  which  has  need  of  all 
your  acuteness  and  of  all  your  good  sense.  For  you  ought  to 
consider  what  it  is  becoming  to  you  to  do,  and  not  what  is 
lawful  for  you.  For  if  you  ask  what  is  lawful,  you  certainly 
have  the  power  to  remove  anyone  whom  you  please  out  of  the 
city.  It  is  the  voting  tablet  which  gives  you  that  power; 
and  at  the  same  time  it  conceals  the  capricious  exercise  of  it. 
No  one  has  any  need  to  fear  the  consciousness  of  the  tablet, 
if  he  has  no  reverence  for  his  own  conscience.  Where,  then, 
is  the  wisdom  of  the  judge  shown?  In  this,  that  he  considers 
not  only  what  he  has  the  power  to  do,  but  also  what  he  ought 


254 


CICERO 


to  do;  and  he  does  not  recollect  only  what  power  has  been 
committed  to  him,  but  also  to  what  extent  it  has  been  com- 
mitted. You  have  a  tablet  given  you  on  which  to  record  your 
judgment.  According  to  what  law?  To  the  Julian  law  about 
extortion  and  peculation.  Concerning  what  defendant?  Con- 
cerning a  Roman  knight.  But  that  body  is  not  liable  to  the 
operation  of  that  law.  But  now  I  hear  what  you  say.  Postu- 
mus,  then,  is  prosecuted  under  that  law,  from  the  operation  of 
which  not  only  he,  but  his  whole  order,  is  released  and  wholly 
free. 

Here  I  will  not  at  present  implore  your  aid,  O  Roman 
knights — you  whose  privileges  are  attacked  by  this  prosecu- 
tion— before  I  implore  you,  O  senators,  whose  good  faith  to- 
ward this  order  of  knights  is  at  stake;  that  good  faith  which 
has  been  often  experienced  before,  and  which  has  been  lately 
proved  in  this  very  cause.  For  when — when  that  most  vir- 
tuous and  admirable  consul  Cnaeus  Pompeius  made  a  motion 
with  respect  to  this  very  inquiry — some,  but  very  few,  unfa- 
vorable opinions  were  delivered,  which  voted  that  prefects, 
and  scribes,  and  all  the  retinue  of  magistrates  were  liable  to 
the  provisions  of  this  law,  you — you  yourselves,  I  say — and 
the  Senate,  in  a  very  full  house,  resisted  this ;  and  although  at 
that  time,  on  account  of  the  offences  committed  by  many  men, 
people's  minds  were  inflamed  so  that  even  innocent  people 
were  in  danger,  still,  though  you  could  not  wholly  extinguish 
its  unpopularity,  at  all  events  you  would  not  allow  fuel  to  be 
added  to  the  existing  fire. 

In  this  spirit  did  the  Senate  act.  What  next?  What  are 
you,  O  Roman  knights,  what  are  you  about  to  do,  I  pray? 
Glaucia,  a  profligate  but  still  a  shrewd  man,  was  in  the  habit 
of  warning  the  people  when  any  law  was  being  read  to  attend 
to  the  first  line  of  it.  If  the  first  word  was  "  dictator,  consul, 
praetor,  master  of  the  horse,"  then  not  to  trouble  themselves 
about  it ;  they  might  know  that  it  was  no  concern  of  theirs. 
But  if  it  began  "  Whoever  after  the  passing  of  this  law,"  then 
they  had  better  take  care  that  they  were  not  made  liable  to 
any  new  judicial  proceedings. 

Now  do  you,  O  Roman  knights,  take  care.  You  know  that 
I  was  born  of  your  order;  that  all  my  feelings  have  always 
been  enlisted  in  your  cause.  I  say  nothing  of  what  I  am  now 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS          255 

saying  but  with  the  deepest  anxiety  and  the  greatest  regard 
for  your  order.  Other  men  may  be  attached  to  other  men  and 
to  other  orders ;  I  have  always  been  devoted  to  you.  I  warn 
you,  I  forewarn  you ;  I  give  you  notice  while  the  affair  and  the 
cause  are  still  undecided;  I  call  all  men  and  gods  to  witness. 
While  you  have  it  in  your  power,  while  it  is  lawful  for  you, 
beware  lest  you  establish  for  yourselves  and  for  your  order  a 
harder  condition  than  you  may  be  able  to  bear.  This  evil 
(believe  me)  will  crawl  on  and  extend  further  than  you  fancy. 
When  a  most  powerful  and  noble  tribune  of  the  people, 
Marcus  Drusus,  proposed  one  formula  of  inquiry  affecting 
the  equestrian  order — "  If  anyone  had  taken  money  on  ac- 
count of  a  judicial  decision  " — the  Roman  knights  openly  re- 
sisted it.  Why?  Did  they  wish  to  be  allowed  to  act  in  such 
a  manner?  Far  from  it.  They  thought  this  cause  of  receiv- 
ing money  not  only  shameful,  but  actually  impious.  But  they 
argued  in  this  way :  that  those  men  only  ought  to  be  made 
liable  to  the  operation  of  any  law,  who  of  their  own  judgment 
submitted  to  such  conditions  of  life.  "  The  highest  rank,"  say 
they,  "  in  the  state  is  a  great  pleasure ;  and  the  curule  chair, 
and  the  fasces,  and  supreme  command,  and  a  province,  and 
priesthoods,  and  triumphs,  and  even  the  fact  of  having  an  im- 
age to  keep  alive  the  recollection  of  one  with  posterity.  There 
is  also  some  anxiety  mingled  with  this  pleasure,  and  a  greater 
apprehension  of  laws  and  of  trials.  We  have  never  despised 
those  considerations"  (for  so  they  argued);  "but  we  have 
adopted  this  tranquil  and  easy  kind  of  life,  which,  because  it 
does  not  bring  honors  with  it,  is  also  free  from  annoyance." 
"  You  are  just  as  much  a  judge  as  I  am  a  senator."  "  Just 
so,  but  you  sought  for  the  one  honor,  and  I  am  compelled  to 
accept  of  the  other;  wherefore,  it  ought  to  be  lawful  for  me 
either  to  decline  being  a  judge,  or  else  I  ought  not  to  be  sub- 
ject to  any  new  law  which  ought  properly  to  regulate  only  the 
conduct  of  senators."  Will  you,  O  Roman  knights,  abandon 
this  privilege  which  you  have  received  from  your  fathers?  I 
warn  you  not  to  do  so.  Men  will  be  hurried  before  these 
courts  of  justice,  not  only  whenever  they  fall  into  all  deserved 
unpopularity,  but  whenever  spiteful  people  say  a  word  against 
them,  if  you  do  not  take  care  to  prevent  it.  If  it  were  now 
told  you  that  opinions  were  pronounced  in  the  Senate  that  you 


256  CICERO 

should  be  liable  to  be  proceeded  against  under  these  laws,  you 
would  think  it  necessary  to  run  in  crowds  to  the  senate-house. 
If  the  law  was  passed,  you  would  throng  to  the  rostra.  The 
Senate  has  decided  that  you  are  exempt  from  the  operation  of 
this  law;  the  people  has  never  subjected  you  to  it;  you  have 
met  together  here  free  from  it ;  take  care  that  you  do  not  de- 
part entangled  in  its  toils. 

For  if  it  was  imputed  as  a  crime  to  Postumus,  who  was 
neither  a  tribune,  nor  a  prefect,  nor  one  of  his  companions 
from  Italy,  nor  even  a  friend  of  Gabinius's,  how  will  these  men 
hereafter  defend  themselves,  who,  being  of  your  order,  have 
been  implicated  with  our  magistrates  in  these  causes  ? 

"  You,"  says  the  prosecutor,  "  instigated  to  Gabinius  to  re- 
store the  king."  My  own  good  faith  does  not  allow  me  to 
speak  with  severity  of  Gabinius.  For  after  having  been  rec- 
onciled to  him,  and  given  up  that  most  bitter  hostility  with 
which  I  regarded  him,  and  after  having  defended  him  with 
the  greatest  zeal,  I  ought  not  to  attack  him  now  that  he  is  in 
distress.  And  even  if  the  influence  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  had 
not  reconciled  me  to  him  while  he  was  in  prosperity,  his  own 
disasters  would  do  so  now.  But  still,  when  you  say  that 
Gabinius  went  to  Alexandria  at  the  instigation  of  Postumus, 
if  you  place  no  confidence  in  what  was  alleged  in  the  defence 
of  Gabinius,  do  you  forget  also  what  you  stated  in  your  own 
speech  for  the  prosecution?  Gabinius  said  that  he  did  that 
for  the  sake  of  the  republic,  because  he  was  afraid  of  the 
fleet  of  Archelaus — because  he  thought  that  otherwise  the 
sea  would  be  entirely  full  of  pirates.  He  said,  moreover,  that 
he  was  authorized  to  do  so  by  a  law.  You,  his  enemy,  deny 
that.  I  pardon  your  denial,  and  so  much  the  more  because 
the  decision  was  contrary  to  the  statement  of  Gabinius. 

I  return,  therefore,  to  the  charge,  and  to  your  speech  for  the 
prosecution.  Why  did  you  keep  crying  out  that  ten  thousand 
talents  had  been  promised  to  Gabinius?  I  suppose  it  was 
necessary  to  find  out  a  very  civil  man  indeed,  who  should  be 
able  to  prevail  on  one  whom  you  call  the  most  avaricious  of 
men,  not  to  despise  immoderately  two  hundred  and  forty  mill- 
ions of  sesterces.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  intention  with 
which  Gabinius  acted,  it  certainly  was  his  own  unsuggested 
intention.  Whatever  sort  of  idea  it  was,  it  was  Gabinius's 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS          257 

own.  Whether,  as  he  said  himself,  his  object  was  glory,  or 
whether,  as  you  insist,  it  was  money,  it  was  for  himself  that 
he  sought  it.  Had  Gabinius  any  companion  or  attendant? 
He  says,  no.  For  he  had  departed  from  Rome  in  deference 
to  the  authority,  not  of  Gabinius,  whose  business  it  was  not, 
but  of  Publius  Lentulus,  a  most  illustrious  man,  given  to  him 
by  the  Senate,  and  with  a  definite  design,  and  with  very  san- 
guine hopes. 

But  he  was  the  king's  steward.  Ay,  and  he  was  in  the 
king's  prison,  and  his  life  was  nearly  taken  away.  He  bore 
many  things  besides,  which  the  caprice  of  the  king  and  neces- 
sity compelled  him  to  endure.  So  that  all  these  matters  come 
under  one  single  reproach,  that  he  entered  his  kingdom,  and 
that  he  intrusted  himself  to  the  power  of  the  king.  A  very 
foolish  action,  if  we  must  say  the  truth.  For  what  can  be 
more  foolish  than  for  a  Roman  knight,  a  man  of  this  city,  I 
say,  a  citizen  of  this  republic,  which,  of  all  others,  is,  and  al- 
ways has  been,  most  especially  free,  to  go  into  a  place  where 
he  is  forced  to  obey  and  be  the  steward  of  another  ? 

But,  nevertheless,  may  I  not  pardon  this  in  Postumus,  who  is 
not  a  man  of  much  learning,  when  I  see  that  the  very  wisest 
men  have  fallen  into  the  same  error?  We  have  heard  that 
that  great  man,  beyond  all  comparison  the  most  learned  man 
that  all  Greece  ever  produced,  Plato,  was  in  the  greatest  danger, 
and  was  exposed  to  the  most  treacherous  designs  by  the  wick- 
edness of  Dionysius,  the  tyrant  of  Sicily,  to  whom  he  had 
trusted  himself.  We  know  that  Callisthenes,  a  very  learned 
man,  the  companion  of  Alexander  the  Great,  was  slain  by 
Alexander.  We  know  that  Demetrius — he,  too,  being  a  citizen 
of  the  free  republic  of  Athens,  the  affairs  of  which  he  had 
conducted  with  the  greatest  ability,  and  being  also  a  man  emi- 
nent for,  and  deeply  impressed  with,  learning — the  one  I  mean, 
who  was  surnamed  Phalereus,  was  deprived  of  his  life  in  that 
self-same  kingdom  of  Egypt,  having  ha"d  an  asp  applied  to  his 
body.  I  plainly  confess  that  nothing  more  insane  can  be  done, 
than  for  a  man  willingly  to  come  into  a  place  where  he  will 
lose  his  liberty.  But  the  still  greater  folly  which  he  had  al- 
ready committed  is  his  excuse  for  the  folly  of  this  subsequent 
conduct;  for  that  causes  this  most  stupid  action,  the  act,  I 
mean,  of  going  into  the  kingdom,  and  of  trusting  himself  to  the 
17 


258 


CICERO 


king,  to  appear  a  wise  and  sensible  step.  At  all  events,  it  is 
not  so  much  the  act  of  one  who  is  forever  a  fool,  as  one  who  is 
wise  too  late,  after  he  has  got  into  difficulties  through  his  folly, 
to  endeavor  to  release  himself  by  whatever  means  he  can.  Let, 
then,  that  be  regarded  as  a  fixed  and  certain  point,  which  can 
neither  be  moved  nor  changed,  in  which  those  who  look  fairly 
at  the  matter  say  that  Postumus  had  entertained  hopes,  those 
who  are  unfavorable  to  him  say  that  he  made  a  blunder,  and 
he  himself  confesses  that  he  acted  like  a  madman,  in  lending 
his  own  money,  and  that  of  his  friends,  to  the  king,  to  the 
great  danger  of  his  own  fortunes ;  still,  when  this  had  once  been 
begun,  it  was  necessary  to  endure  these  other  evils,  in  order, 
at  last,  to  reunite  himself  to  his  friends.  Therefore,  you  may 
reproach  him  as  often  as  you  please  with  having  worn  an 
Egyptian  robe,  and  with  having  had  about  him  other  orna- 
ments which  are  not  worn  by  a  Roman  citizen.  For  every 
time  that  you  mention  any  one  of  these  particulars,  you  are  only 
repeating  that  same  thing — that  he  lent  money  rashly  to  the 
king,  and  that  he  trusted  his  fortunes  and  his  character  to  the 
royal  caprice.  He  did  so  rashly,  I  confess  it;  but  the  case 
could  not  possibly  be  changed  then ;  either  he  was  forced  to  put 
on  an  Egyptian  cloak  at  Alexandria,  in  order  afterward  to  be 
able  to  wear  his  gown  at  Rome ;  or,  if  he  retained  his  gown 
in  Egypt,  he  must  have  discarded  all  hope  of  recovering  his 
fortunes. 

For  the  sake  of  luxury  and  pleasure  we  have  often  seen, 
not  only  ordinary  Roman  citizens,  but  youths  of  high  birth, 
and  even  some  senators,  men  born  in  the  highest  rank,  wear- 
ing little  caps,  not  in  their  country-seats  or  their  suburban 
villas,  but  at  Naples,  in  a  much-frequented  town.  We  have 
even  seen  Lucius  Sylla,  that  great  commander,  in  a  cloak. 
And  you  can  now  see  the  statue  of  Lucius  Scipio,  who  con- 
ducted the  war  in  Asia,  and  defeated  Antiochus,  standing  in 
the  Capitol,  not  only  with  a  cloak,  but  also  with  Grecian  slip- 
pers. And  yet  these  men  not  only  were  not  liable  to  be  tried 
for  wearing  them,  but  they  were  not  even  talked  about ;  and, 
at  all  events,  the  excuse  of  necessity  will  be  a  more  valid  de- 
fence for  Publius  Rutilius  Rufus ;  for  when  he  had  been  caught 
at  Mitylene  by  Mithridates,  he  avoided  the  cruelty  with  which 
the  king  treated  all  who  wore  the  Roman  gown,  by  changing 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS          259 

his  apparel.  Therefore,  that  Rutilius,  who  was  a  pattern  to 
our  citizens  of  virtue,  and  of  the  ancient  dignity,  and  of  pru- 
dence, and  a  man  of  consular  rank,  put  on  slippers  and  a  cloak. 
Nor  did  anyone  think  of  reproaching  the  man  with  having 
done  so,  but  all  imputed  it  to  the  necessity  of  the  time.  And 
shall  that  garment  bring  an  accusation  upon  Postumus,  which 
afforded  him  a  hope  that  he  might  at  some  time  or  other  re- 
cover his  fortune? 

For  when  he  came  to  Alexandria  to  Auletes,1  O  judges,  this 
one  means  of  saving  his  money  was  proposed  to  Postumus  by 
the  king — namely,  that  he  should  undertake  the  management, 
and,  as  it  were,  the  stewardship  of  the  royal  revenues.  And 
he  could  not  do  that  unless  he  became  the  steward.  For  he 
uses  that  title  which  had  been  given  to  the  office  by  the  king. 
The  business  seemed  an  odious  one  to  Postumus,  but  he  had 
actually  no  power  of  declining  it.  The  name  itself,  too,  was 
annoying ;  but  the  business  had  that  name  of  old  among  those 
people,  it  was  not  now  newly  imposed  by  the  king.  He  de- 
tested also  that  dress,  but  without  it  he  could  neither  have  the 
title  nor  fill  his  office.  Therefore,  I  say,  that  he  was  com- 
pelled by  force  to  act  as  he  did — by  force  which,  as  our  great 
poet  says — 

"  Breaks  and  subdues  the  loftiest  dignity." 

He  should  have  died,  you  will  say ;  for  that  is  the  alternative. 
And  so  he  would  have  done,  if,  while  his  affairs  were  in  such 
a  state  of  embarrassment,  he  could  have  died  without  the 
greatest  disgrace. 

Do  not,  then,  impute  his  hard  fortune  to  him  as  a  fault ;  do 
not  think  the  injury  done  to  him  by  the  king  his  crime ;  do  not 
judge  of  his  intentions  by  the  compulsions  under  which  he 
was,  nor  of  his  inclination  by  the  force  to  which  he  submitted. 
Unless,  indeed,  you  think  those  men  deserving  of  reproach  who 
have  fallen  among  enemies  or  among  thieves,  and  who  then 
act  differently  under  compulsion  from  what  they  would  if  they 
were  free.  No  one  of  us  is  ignorant,  even  if  we  have  had  no 
personal  experience  of  it,  of  the  mode  of  proceeding  adopted 
by  a  king.  These  are  the  orders  given  by  kings :  "  Take  no- 
tice," "  Obey  orders,"  "  Do  not  complain  when  you  are  not 

1  Ptolemaeus  was  surnamed  Auletes. 


26o  CICERO 

asked."  These  are  their  threats :  "  If  I  catch  you  here  to- 
morrow, you  shall  die."  Expressions  which  we  ought  to  read 
and  consider,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  being  amused  by 
them,  but  in  order  to  learn  to  beware  of  their  authors,  and  to 
avoid  them. 

But  from  the  circumstance  of  this  employment  itself  an- 
other charge  arises.  For  the  prosecutor  says,  that  while  Pos- 
tumus  was  collecting  the  money  for  Gabinius,  he  also  amassed 
money  for  himself  out  of  the  tenths  belonging  to  the  generals. 
I  do  not  quite  understand  what  this  charge  means ;  whether 
Postumus  is  charged  with  having  made  an  addition  of  one  per 
cent,  to  the  tenth,  as  our  own  collectors  are  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  or  whether  he  deducted  that  sum  from  the  total  amount 
of  the  tenths.  If  he  made  that  addition,  then  eleven  thousand 
talents  came  to  Gabinius.  But  not  only  was  the  amount  men- 
tioned by  you  ten  thousand  talents,  but  that  also  was  the  sum 
at  which  it  was  estimated  by  them.  I  add  this  consideration 
also.  How  can  it  be  likely,  that  when  the  burden  of  the  tributes 
was  already  so  heavy,  an  addition  of  one  thousand  talents 
could  be  made  to  so  large  a  sum  which  was  to  be  collected? 
or  that,  when  a  man,  a  most  avaricious  man  as  you  make  him 
out,  was  to  receive  so  large  a  reward,  he  would  put  up  with  a 
diminution  of  a  thousand  talents  ?  For  it  was  not  like  Gabinius, 
to  give  up  so  vast  a  portion  of  what  he  had  a  right  to ;  nor  was 
it  natural  for  the  king  to  allow  him  to  impose  so  great  an  addi- 
tional tax  on  his  subjects.  Witnesses  will  be  produced,  depu- 
ties from  Alexandria.  They  have  not  said  a  word  against 
Gabinius.  Nay,  they  have  even  praised  Gabinius.  Where, 
then,  is  that  custom ;  what  has  become  of  the  usages  of  courts 
of  justice?  Where  are  your  precedents ?  Is  it  usual  to  produce 
a  witness  to  give  evidence  against  a  man  who  has  been  the 
collector  of  money,  when  he  has  not  been  able  to  say  a  word 
against  the  man  in  whose  name  the  money  was  collected  ?  Nay 
more ;  if  it  is  usual  to  produce  a  man  who  has  said  nothing,  is 
it  usual  to  produce  one  who  has  spoken  in  his  praise  ?  Is  it  not 
customary  rather  to  look  on  such  a  cause  as  already  decided, 
and  to  think  that  it  is  sufficient  to  read  the  previous  evidence 
of  the  witnesses,  without  producing  the  men  themselves? 

And  this  intimate  companion  and  friend  of  mine  says  also 
that  the  men  of  Alexandria  had  the  same  reason  for  prais- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS          261 

ing  Gabinius  that  I  had  for  defending  him.  My  reason,  O 
Caius  Memmius,  for  defending  him  was,  that  I  had  become 
reconciled  to  him.  Nor  do  I  repent  of  considering  my  friend- 
ships immortal,  but  my  enmities  mortal.  For  if  you  think 
that  I  defended  him  against  my  will,  because  I  did  not  like  to 
offend  Pompeius,  you  are  very  ignorant  both  of  his  character 
and  of  mine.  For  Pompeius  would  not  have  wished  me  to 
do  anything  contrary  to  my  inclination  for  his  sake.  Nor 
would  I,  to  whom  the  liberty  of  all  the  citizens  has  always 
been  the  dearest  object,  ever  have  abandoned  my  own.  As 
long  as  I  was  on  terms  of  the  greatest  enmity  to  Gabinius, 
Pompeius  was  in  no  respect  the  less  my  dearest  friend.  Nor 
after  I  had  made  to  his  authority  that  concession  to  which  it 
was  entitled  from  me,  did  I  feign  anything;  I  could  not  be- 
have with  treachery  so  as  to  injure  the  very  man  whom  I  had 
just  been  obliging.  For  by  refusing  to  be  reconciled  to  my 
enemy,  I  was  doing  no  harm  to  Pompeius;  but  if  I  had  al- 
lowed him  to  reconcile  us,  and  yet  had  myself  been  recon- 
ciled to  Gabinius  with  a  treacherous  intention,  I  should  have 
behaved  dishonestly,  principally,  indeed,  to  myself,  but  in  the 
next  degree  to  him  also. 

But,  however,  I  will  say  no  more  about  myself.  Let  us  re- 
turn to  those  Alexandrians.  What  a  face  those  men  have ! 
What  audacity !  The  other  day,  when  we  were  present  at 
the  trial  of  Gabinius,  they  were  cross-examined  at  every  third 
word  they  said.  They  declared  that  the  money  had  not  been 
given  to  Gabinius.  The  evidence  of  Pompeius  was  read  at 
the  same  time,  to  the  effect  that  he  had  written  to  the  king 
that  no  money  had  been  given  to  Gabinius  except  for  mili- 
tary purposes.  "At  that  time,"  says  the  prosecutor,  "the 
judges  refused  to  believe  the  Alexandrians."  What  does  he 
say  next  ?  "  Now  they  do  believe  them."  Why  so  ?  "  Be- 
cause they  now  affirm  what  they  then  denied."  What  of 
that?  Is  this  the  way  in  which  we  are  to  regard  witnesses 
— to  refuse  them  belief  when  they  deny  a  thing,  but  to  be- 
lieve the  very  same  men  when  they  affirm  a  thing?  But  if 
they  told  the  truth  then,  when  they  spoke  with  every  appear- 
ance of  truth,  they  are  telling  lies  now.  If  they  told  lies  then, 
they  must  give  us.  good  proof  that  they  are  now  speaking  the 
truth.  Why  need  I  say  more?  Let  them  hold  their  tongues. 


262  CICERO 

We  have  heard  men  speak  of  Alexandria  before.  Now  we 
know  it  from  our  own  experience.  Thence  it  is,  that  every 
sort  of  chicanery  comes.  Thence,  I  say,  comes  every  sort  of 
deceit.  It  is  from  that  people  that  all  the  plots  of  the  farce- 
writers  are  derived.  And,  indeed,  there  is  nothing  which  I 
wish  for  more,  O  judges,  than  to  see  the  witnesses  face  to  face. 

They  gave  their  evidence  a  little  while  ago  before  this  tri- 
bunal, at  the  same  time  that  we  ourselves  did.  With  what  ef- 
frontery did  they  then  repudiate  the  charge  of  this  ten  thou- 
sand talents !  You  are  acquainted  by  this  time  with  the  absurd 
ways  of  the  Greeks.  They  shrugged  their  shoulders  at  that 
time,  I  suppose,  in  respect  of  the  existing  emergency;  but 
now  there  is  no  such  necessity.  When  anyone  has  once  per- 
jured himself  he  cannot  be  believed  afterward,  not  even  if  he 
swears  by  more  gods  than  he  did  before ;  especially,  O  judges, 
when  in  trials  of  this  sort  there  is  not  usually  any  room  for 
a  new  witness ;  and  on  that  account  the  same  judges  are  re- 
tained who  were  judges  in  the  case  of  the  original  defendant, 
because  everything  is  already  known  to  them,  and  nothing 
new  can  be  invented. 

Actions  on  the  formula,  "  What  has  become  of  that  money  ?  " 
are  usually  decided,  not  by  any  proceedings  taken  especially 
with  reference  to  them,  but  by  those  which  were  adopted  in 
the  case  of  the  original  defendant.  Therefore,  if  Gabinius 
had  either  given  sureties,  or  if  the  people  had  got  as  large  a 
sum  out  of  his  property  as  the  damages  amounted  to,  then, 
however  large  a  sum  had  been  obtained  from  him  by  Postu- 
mus,  none  would  have  been  demanded  back  again.  So  that 
it  may  easily  be  seen,  that  in  a  case  of  this  sort,  the  money  is 
only  demanded  back  again  from  anyone  who  has  been  clearly 
proved  in  the  former  action  to  have  become  possessed  of  it, 
But  at  present  what  is  the  question  under  discussion?  Where 
in  the  world  are  we?  What  can  be  either  said  or  imagined 
so  unprecedented,  so  unsuitable,  so  preposterous  as  this  ?  That 
man  is  being  prosecuted  who  did  not  receive  any  money  from 
the  king,  as  it  has  been  decided  that  Gabinius  did,  but  who 
lent  a  vast  sum  of  money  to  the  king.  Therefore,  he  gave  it  to 
Gabinius,  as  he  certainly  did  not  repay  it  to  Postumus.  Tell 
me  now,  I  beg,  since  the  man  who  owed  Postumus  money  did 
not  pay  it  to  him,  but  gave  money  to  Gabinius,  now  that  Ga- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABIRIUS  POSTUMUS          263 

binius  is  condemned  has  he  paid  him  back  that  money,  or  does 
he  owe  it  to  him  still  ? 

"  Oh,  but  Postumus  has  the  money,  and  is  hiding  it."  For 
there  are  men  who  talk  in  this  way.  What  a  strange  sort 
of  ostentation  and  vain-gloriousness  is  this!  If  he  had  never 
originally  had  anything,  still,  if  he  had  acquired  a  fortune, 
there  could  be  no  reason  why  he  should  conceal  his  having 
it.  But  in  the  case  of  a  man  who  had  inherited  two  ample 
and  splendid  patrimonial  estates,  and  who  had,  moreover,  in- 
creased his  property  by  legitimate  and  honorable  means,  what 
reason  could  there  possibly  be  why  he  should  wish  to  be  sup- 
posed to  have  nothing?  Are  we  to  believe  that,  when  he  was 
induced  by  the  hope  of  interest  to  lend  his  money,  his  object 
was  to  have  as  large  an  estate  as  possible,  but  that  after  he  had 
got  back  the  money  which  he  had  lent,  he  then  wished  to  be 
thought  to  be  in  want  ?  He  is  certainly  aiming  at  quite  a  new 
sort  of  glory.  "  And  again,"  says  the  prosecutor,  "  he  acted 
in  a  very  arbitrary  manner  at  Alexandria."  I  should  rather 
say  he  was  treated  in  a  most  arbitrary,  ay,  in  a  most  insolent 
manner;  he  himself  had  to  endure  imprisonment.  He  saw 
his  intimate  friends  thrown  into  prison.  Death  was  constantly 
before  his  eyes.  And  at  last,  naked  and  needy,  he  fled  from 
the  kingdom.  "  But  his  money  was  employed  in  commerce  in 
other  quarters.  We  have  heard  that  ships  belonging  to  Pos- 
tumus arrived  at  Puteoli,  and  merchandise  belonging  to  him 
was  seen  there,  things  only  showy  and  of  no  real  value,  made 
of  paper,  and  linen,  and  glass;  and  there  were  several  ships 
entirely  filled  with  such  articles ;  but  there  was  also  one  little 
ship,  the  contents  of  which  were  not  known."  That  voyage 
to  Puteoli  (such  was  the  conversation  at  that  time),  and  the 
course  taken  by  the  crew,  and  the  parade  they  made,  and  the 
fact,  too,  of  the  name  of  Postumus  being  rather  unpopular 
with  some  spiteful  people,  on  account  of  some  idea  or  other 
respecting  his  money,  filled  in  one  summer  numbers  of  ears 
with  those  topics  of  conversation. 

But  if,  O  judges,  you  wish  to  know  the  truth — if  the  lib- 
erality of  Caius  Caesar,  which  is  very  great  to  everyone,  had 
not  been  quite  incredible  toward  my  client,  we  should  long 
since  have  ceased  to  have  Postumus  among  us  in  the  forum. 
He  by  himself,  took  upon  himself  the  burden  of  many  of  Pos- 


264  CICERO 

tumus's  friends;  and  those  responsibilities,  which  during  the 
prosperity  of  Postumus  many  of  his  friends  supported  by 
dividing  them,  now  that  he  is  unfortunate,  Caesar  supports 
the  whole  of.  You  see,  O  judges,  the  shadow  and  phantom 
of  a  Roman  knight,  preserved  by  the  assistance  and  good  faith 
of  one  single  friend.  Nothing  can  be  taken  from  him  except 
this  image  of  his  former  dignity,  and  that  Caesar  by  himself 
preserves  and  maintains.  And  that,  even  amid  his  greatest 
distresses,  is  still  to  be  attributed  to  him  in  an  eminent  degree. 

Unless,  indeed,  this  can  be  effected  by  a  moderate  degree  of 
virtue,  that  so  just  a  man  as  Caesar  should  think  this  my  client 
of  so  much  consequence,  especially  now  that  he  is  in  distress 
and  absent,  and  while  he  himself  is  in  the  enjoyment  of  such 
splendid  fortune  that  it  is  a  great  thing  for  him  to  give  a 
thought  to  the  fortunes  of  others ;  while  he  is  so  incessantly 
busied  about  the  mighty  achievements  which  he  has  performed 
and  is  still  performing,  that  it  would  be  no  wonder  if  he  for- 
got other  people  altogether;  and  even  if  he  afterward  recol- 
lected that  he  had  forgotten  them,  he  would  easily  find  excuse 
for  so  doing. 

I  have,  indeed,  before  now,  become  acquainted  with  many 
virtues  of  Caius  Caesar,  great  and  incredible  virtues.  But 
those  other  virtues  of  his  are  suited  as  it  were  to  a  more  ex- 
tensive theatre,  are  what  I  may  almost  call  virtues  to  catch 
the  eye  of  the  people.  To  select  a  place  for  a  camp,  to  array 
an  army,  to  storm  cities,  to  put  to  flight  the  army  of  the  ene- 
my, to  endure  the  severity  of  cold  and  bad  weather,  which  we 
can  hardly  support  sheltered  by  the  houses  of  this  city;  at 
this  very  time 2  to  be  pursuing  the  enemy,  at  a  time  when 
even  the  wild  beasts  hide  themselves  in  their  lurking-places, 
and  when  all  wars  are  suspended  by  the  general  consent  of 
nations;  these  are  great  deeds:  who  denies  it?  But  still 
they  are  prompted  by  vast  rewards,  being  handed  down  to  the 
eternal  recollection  of  men.  So  that  there  is  less  reason  to 
wonder  at  a  man's  performing  them  who  is  ambitious  of  im- 
mortality. 

This  is  wonderful  praise,  which  is  not  celebrated  by  the 
verses  of  poets,  nor  by  the  records  of  annals,  but  is  estimated 
by  the  judgments  of  wise  men.  He  took  up  the  cause  of  a 

*  This  trial  took  place  in  January. 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABINIUS  POSTUMUS         265 

Roman  knight,  his  own  ancient  friend,  one  zealous  for,  at- 
tached and  devoted  to  himself,  who  was  getting  involved  in 
difficulties;  not  through  licentiousness,  nor  through  any  dis- 
creditable expense  and  waste  to  gratify  his  passions,  but 
through  an  honest  endeavor  to  increase  his  fortune ;  he  would 
not  allow  him  to  fall;  he  propped  him  up  and  supported  him 
with  his  estate,  his  fortune,  and  his  good  faith,  and  he  supports 
him  to  this  day.  Nor  will  he  allow  his  friend,  trembling  in 
the  balance  as  he  is,  to  fall ;  nor  does  the  splendor  of  his  own 
reputation  at  all  dazzle  his  eyes,  nor  does  the  height  of  his  own 
position  and  of  his  own  renown  at  all  obscure  the  piercing 
vision  of  his  mind.  Grant  that  those  achievements  of  his  are 
great  things,  as  in  truth  they  are;  everyone  else  may  agree 
with  my  opinion  or  not,  as  he  pleases,  for  I,  amid  all  his  power 
and  all  his  good  fortune,  prefer  this  liberality  of  his  toward 
his  friends,  and  his  recollection  of  old  friendship,  to  all  the  rest 
of  his  virtues.  And  you,  O  judges,  ought  not  only  not  to  de- 
spise or  to  regret  this  goodness  of  so  novel  a  kind,  so  unusual 
in  illustrious  and  pre-eminently  powerful  men,  but  even  to  em- 
brace and  increase  it ;  and  so  much  the  more,  because  you  see 
that  these  days  have  been  taken  for  the  purpose  of,  as  it  were, 
undermining  his  dignity;  from  which  nothing  can  be  taken 
which  he  will  not  either  bravely  bear,  or  easily  replace.  But 
if  he  hears  that  his  dearest  friend  has  been  stripped  of  his  hon- 
orable position,  that  he  will  not  endure  without  just  indigna- 
tion ;  and  yet  he  will  not  have  lost  what  he  can  have  no  possi- 
ble hope  of  ever  recovering. 

These  arguments  ought  to  be  quite  sufficient  for  men  who 
are  of  a  just  disposition;  and  more  than  sufficient  for  you, 
who  we  feel  sure  are  men  of  the  greatest  justice.  But,  in  order 
fully  to  satisfy  everybody's  suspicions  or  malevolence,  or 
even  cruelty,  we  will  take  this  statement  too.  "  Postumus 
is  hiding  his  money ;  the  king's  riches  are  concealed."  Is  there 
any  one  of  all  this  people  who  would  like  to  have  all  the  prop- 
erty of  Caius  Rabirius  Postumus  knocked  down  to  him  for 
one  single  sesterce  ? 3  But,  miserable  man  that  I  am !  with 
what  great  pain  do  I  say  this:  Come,  Postumus,  are  you  the 
son  of  Caius  Curius,  the  son,  as  far  as  his  judgment  and  in- 
clination go,  of  Caius  Rabirius,  not  in  reality  and  by  nature 

1  Those  who  bought  a  property  took  it  with  all  its  liabilities. 


266  CICERO 

the  son  of  his  sister?  Are  you  the  man  who  is  so  liberal  to 
all  his  relations;  whose  kindness  has  enriched  many  men; 
who  has  never  wasted  anything;  who  has  never  spent  any 
money  on  any  profligacy  ?  and  all  your  property,  O  Postumus, 
knocked  down  by  me  for  one  single  sesterce?  Oh,  how  mis- 
erable and  bitter  is  my  office  as  an  auctioneer!  But  he,  mis- 
erable man,  even  wishes  to  be  convicted  by  you ;  and  to  have 
his  property  sold,  so  that  everyone  may  be  repaid  his  principal. 
He  has  no  concern  about  anything  except  his  own  good  faith. 
Nor  will  you,  if  you  should,  in  his  case,  think  fit  to  forget  your 
habitual  humanity,  be  able  to  take  from  him  anything  beyond 
his  property.  But,  O  judges,  I  beg  and  entreat  you  not  to  for- 
get that  usual  course  of  yours,  and  so  much  the  more  as  in  this 
instance  money  which  he  has  nothing  to  do  with  is  being 
claimed  of  a  man  who  is  not  even  repaid  his  own.  Odium  is 
sought  to  be  stirred  up  against  a  man  who  ought  to  find  an  ally 
in  the  general  pity. 

But  now,  since,  as  I  hope,  I  have  discharged  as  well  as  I 
have  been  able  to,  the  obligations  of  good  faith  to  you,  O  Pos- 
tumus, I  will  give  you  also  the  aid  of  my  tears,  as  I  well  may ; 
for  I  saw  abundant  tears  shed  by  you  at  the  time  of  my  own 
misfortune.  That  miserable  night  is  constantly  present  to  the 
eyes  of  all  my  friends,  on  which  you  came  to  me  with  your 
forces,  and  devoted  yourself  wholly  to  me.  You  supported 
me  at  that  time  of  my  departure  with  your  companions,  with 
your  protection,  and  even  as  much  gold  as  that  time  would 
admit  of.  During  the  time  of  my  absence  you  were  never  de- 
ficient in  comforting  and  aiding  my  children,  or  my  wife.  I 
can  produce  many  men  who  have  been  recalled  from  banish- 
ment as  witnesses  of  your  liberality;  conduct  which  I  have 
often  heard  was  of  the  greatest  assistance  to  your  father,  whose 
behavior  was  like  your  own,  when  he  was  tried  for  his  life. 
But  at  present  I  am  afraid  of  everything:  I  dread  even  the 
unpopularity  which  your  very  kindness  of  disposition  may  pro- 
voke. Already  the  weeping  of  so  many  men  as  we  behold  in- 
dicates how  beloved  you  are  by  your  own  relations;  but,  as 
for  me,  grief  enfeebles  and  stifles  my  voice.  I  do  entreat  you, 
O  judges,  do  not  deprive  this  most  excellent  man,  than  whom 
no  more  virtuous  man  has  ever  lived,  of  the  name  of  a  Roman 
knight,  of  the  enjoyment  of  this  light,  and  of  the  pleasure  of 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  CAIUS  RABINIUS  POSTUMUS         267 

beholding  you.  He  begs  nothing  else  of  you,  except  to  be  al- 
lowed with  uplifted  eyes  to  behold  this  city,  and  to  pace  around 
the  forum ;  a  pleasure  which  fortune  would  have  already  de- 
prived him  of,  if  the  power  of  one  single  friend  had  not  come 
to  his  assistance. 


SPEECH    IN    BEHALF    OF 
MARCUS    CLAUDIUS    MARCELLUS 


THE   ARGUMENT 

Marcus  Claudius  Marcellus  was  descended  from  the  most  illustrious 
families  at  Rome,  and  had  been  consul  with  Servius  Sulpicius  Rufus; 
in  which  office  he  had  given  great  offence  to  Caesar  by  making  a  mo- 
tion in  the  Senate  to  deprive  him  of  his  command;  and  in  the  civil 
war  he  espoused  the  side  of  Pompeius,  and  had  been  present  at  the 
battle  of  Pharsalia,  after  which  he  retired  to  Lesbos.  But  after  some 
time  the  whole  Senate  interceded  with  Caesar  to  pardon  him,  and  to 
allow  him  to  return  to  his  country.  And  when  he  yielded  to  their 
entreaties,  Cicero  made  the  following  speech,  thanking  Caesar  for  his 
magnanimity;  though  he  had,  as  he  says  himself  (Ep.  Fam.  iv.  4), 
determined  to  say  nothing ;  but  he  was  afraid  that  if  he  continued  silent 
Caesar  would  interpret  it  as  a  proof  that  he  despaired  of  the  republic. 

Caesar,  though  he  saw  the  Senate  unanimous  in  their  petition  for 
Marcellus,  yet  had  the  motion  for  his  pardon  put  to  the  vote,  and 
called  for  the  opinion  of  every  individual  senator  on  it.  Cicero  appears 
at  this  time  to  have  believed  that  Caesar  intended  to  restore  the  repub- 
lic, as  he  mentions  in  his  letters  (Ep.  Fam.  xiii.  68). 


270 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF  OF 
MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS 

THIS  day,  O  conscript  fathers,  has  brought  with  it  an  end 
to  the  long  silence  in  which  I  have  of  late  indulged; 
not  out  of  any  fear,  but  partly  from  sorrow,  partly  from 
modesty ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  has  revived  in  me  my  ancient 
habit  of  saying  what  my  wishes  and  opinions  are.  For  I  can- 
not by  any  means  pass  over  in  silence  such  great  humanity, 
such  unprecedented  and  unheard-of  clemency,  such  moderation 
in  the  exercise  of  supreme  and  universal  power,  such  incredi- 
ble and  almost  godlike  wisdom.  For  now  that  Marcus  Mar- 
cellus,  O  conscript  fathers,  has  been  restored  to  you  and  the 
republic,  I  think  that  not  only  his  voice  and  authority  are  pre- 
served and  restored  to  you  and  to  the  republic,  but  my  own 
also. 

For  I  was  concerned,  O  conscript  fathers,  and  most  exceed- 
ingly grieved,  when  I  saw  such  a  man  as  he  is,  who  had 
espoused  the  same  cause  which  I  myself  had,  not  enjoying 
the  same  good  fortune  as  myself;  nor  was  I  able  to  persuade 
myself  to  think  it  right  or  fair  that  I  should  be  going  on  in 
my  usual  routine,  while  that  rival  and  imitator  of  my  zeal 
and  labors,  who  had  been  a  companion  and  comrade  of  mine 
throughout,  was  separated  from  me.  Therefore,  you,  O  Caius 
Caesar,  have  reopened  to  me  my  former  habits  of  life,  which 
were  closed  up,  and  you  have  raised,  as  it  were,  a  standard  to 
all  these  men,  as  a  sort  of  token  to  lead  them  to  entertain 
hopes  of  the  general  welfare  of  the  republic.  For  it  was  seen 
by  me  before  in  many  instances,  and  especially  in  my  own, 
and  now  it  is  clearly  understood  by  everybody,  since  you  have 
granted  Marcus  Marcellus  to  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome, 
in  spite  of  your  recollection  of  all  the  injuries  you  have  received 
at  his  hands,  that  you  prefer  the  authority  of  this  order  and 

271 


2?2  CICERO 

the  dignity  of  the  republic  to  the  indulgence  of  your  own  re- 
sentment or  your  own  suspicions. 

He,  indeed,  has  this  day  reaped  the  greatest  possible  reward 
for  the  virtuous  tenor  of  his  previous  life ;  in  the  great  una- 
nimity of  the  Senate  in  his  favor,  and  also  in  your  own  most 
dignified  and  important  opinion  of  him.  And  from  this  you, 
in  truth,  must  perceive  what  great  credit  there  is  in  conferring 
a  kindness,  when  there  is  such  glory  to  be  got  even  by  receiv- 
ing one.  And  he,  too,  is  fortunate  whose  safety  is  now  the 
cause  of  scarcely  less  joy  to  all  other  men  than  it  will  be  to 
himself  when  he  is  informed  of  it.  And  this  honor  was  de- 
servedly and  most  rightfully  fallen  to  his  lot.  For  who  is 
superior  to  him  either  in  nobleness  of  birth,  or  in  honesty,  or 
in  zeal  for  virtuous  studies,  or  in  purity  of  life,  or  in  any  de- 
scription whatever  of  excellence  ? 

No  one  is  blessed  with  such  a  stream  of  genius,  no  one  is 
endowed  with  such  vigor  and  richness  of  eloquence,  either  as 
a  speaker,  or  as  a  writer,  as  to  be  able,  I  will  not  say  to  extol, 
but  even,  O  Caius  Caesar,  plainly  to  relate  all  your  achieve- 
ments. Nevertheless,  I  assert,  and  with  your  leave  I  main- 
tain, that  in  all  of  them  you  never  gained  greater  and  truer 
glory  than  you  have  acquired  this  day.  I  am  accustomed  often 
to  keep  this  idea  before  my  eyes,  and  often  to  affirm  in  fre- 
quent conversations,  that  all  the  exploits  of  our  own  generals, 
all  those  of  foreign  nations  and  of  most  powerful  states,  all  the 
mighty  deeds  of  the  most  illustrious  monarchs,  can  be  com- 
pared with  yours  neither  in  the  magnitude  of  your  wars,  nor 
in  the  number  of  your  battles,  nor  in  the  variety  of  countries 
which  you  have  conquered,  nor  in  the  rapidity  of  your  con- 
quests, nor  in  the  great  difference  of  character  with  which 
your  wars  have  been  marked;  and  that  those  countries  the 
most  remote  from  each  other  could  not  be  travelled  over  more 
rapidly  by  anyone  in  a  journey,  than  they  have  been  visited 
by  your,  I  will  not  say,  journeys,  but  victories. 

And  if  I  were  not  to  admit,  that  those  actions  are  so  great 
that  scarcely  any  man's  mind  or  comprehension  is  capable  of 
doing  justice  to  them,  I  should  be  very  senseless.  But  there 
are  other  actions  greater  than  those.  For  some  people  are  in 
the  habit  of  disparaging  military  glory,  and  of  denying  the 
whole  of  it  to  the  generals,  and  of  giving  the  multitude  a  share 


IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS     273 

of  it  also,  so  that  it  may  not  be  the  peculiar  property  of  the 
commanders.  And,  no  doubt,  in  the  affairs  of  war,  the  valor 
of  the  troops,  the  advantages  of  situation,  the  assistance  of 
allies,  fleets,  and  supplies,  have  great  influence;  and  a  most 
important  share  in  all  such  transactions,  Fortune  claims  for 
herself,  as  of  her  right ;  and  whatever  has  been  done  success- 
fully she  considers  almost  entirely  as  her  own  work. 

But  in  this  glory,  O  Caius  Caesar,  which  you  have  just  earned, 
you  have  no  partner.  The  whole  of  this,  however  great  it 
may  be — and  surely  it  is  as  great  as  possible — the  whole  of 
it,  I  say,  is  your  own.  The  centurion  can  claim  for  himself 
no  share  of  that  praise,  neither  can  the  prefect,  nor  the  bat- 
talion, nor  the  squadron.  Nay,  even  that  very  mistress  of  all 
human  affairs,  Fortune  herself,  cannot  thrust  herself  into  any 
participation  in  that  glory;  she  yields  to  you;  she  confesses 
that  it  is  all  your  own,  your  peculiar  private  desert.  For  rash- 
ness is  never  united  with  wisdom,  nor  is  chance  ever  admitted 
to  regulate  affairs  conducted  with  prudence. 

You  have  subdued  nations,  savage  in  their  barbarism,  count- 
less in  their  numbers,  boundless,  if  we  regard  the  extent  of 
country  peopled  by  them,  and  rich  in  every  kind  of  resource ; 
but  still  you  were  only  conquering  things,  the  nature  and  con- 
dition of  which  was  such  that  they  could  be  overcome  by  force. 
For  there  is  no  strength  so  great  that  it  cannot  be  weakened 
and  broken  by  arms  and  violence.  But  to  subdue  one's  inclina- 
tions, to  master  one's  angry  feelings,  to  be  moderate  in  the  hour 
of  victory,  to  not  merely  raise  from  the  ground  a  prostrate 
adversary,  eminent  for  noble  birth,  for  genius,  and  for  virtue, 
but  even  to  increase  his  previous  dignity — they  are  actions  of 
such  a  nature,  that  the  man  who  does  them,  I  do  not  compare 
to  the  most  illustrious  man,  but  I  consider  equal  to  God. 

Therefore,  O  Caius  Caesar,  those  military  glories  of  yours 
will  be  celebrated  not  only  in  our  own  literature  and  language, 
but  in  those  of  almost  all  nations ;  nor  is  there  any  age  which 
will  ever  be  silent  about  your  praises.  But  still,  deeds  of  that 
sort,  somehow  or  other,  even  when  they  are  read,  appear  to 
be  overwhelmed  with  the  cries  of  the  soldiers  and  the  sound 
of  the  trumpets.  But  when  we  hear  or  read  of  anything 
which  has  been  done  with  clemency,  with  humanity,  with  jus- 
tice, with  moderation,  and  with  wisdom,  especially  in  a  time 
18 


274 


CICERO 


of  anger,  which  is  very  adverse  to  prudence,  and  in  the  hour 
of  victory,  which  is  naturally  insolent  and  haughty,  with  what 
ardor  are  we  then  inflamed  (even  if  the  actions  are  not  such 
as  have  really  been  performed,  but  are  only  fabulous),  so  as 
often  to  love  those  whom  we  have  never  seen!  But  as  for 
you,  whom  we  behold  present  among  us,  whose  mind,  and 
feelings,  and  countenance,  we  at  this  moment  see  to  be  such, 
that  you  wish  to  preserve  everything  which  the  fortune  of 
war  has  left  to  the  republic,  oh,  with  what  praises  must  we 
extol  you?  with  what  zeal  must  we  follow  you?  with  what 
affection  must  we  devote  ourselves  to  you?  The  very  walls, 
I  declare,  the  very  walls  of  this  senate-house  appear  to  me 
eager  to  return  you  thanks ;  because,  in  a  short  time,  you  will 
have  restored  their  ancient  authority  to  this  venerable  abode 
of  themselves  and  of  their  ancestors. 

In  truth,  O  conscript  fathers,  when  I  just  now,  in  common 
with  you,  beheld  the  tears  of  Caius  Marcellus,  a  most  virtuous 
man,  endowed  with  a  never-to-be-forgotten  affection  for  his 
brother,  the  recollection  of  all  the  Marcelli  presented  itself  to 
my  heart.  For  you,  O  Caesar,  have,  by  preserving  Marcus 
Marcellus,  restored  their  dignity  even  to  those  Marcelli  who 
are  dead,  and  you  have  saved  that  most  noble  family,  now  re- 
duced to  a  small  number,  from  perishing.  You,  therefore, 
justly  prefer  this  day  to  all  the  splendid  and  innumerable 
congratulations  which  at  different  times  have  been  addressed 
to  you.  For  this  exploit  is  your  own  alone ;  the  other  achieve- 
ments which  have  been  performed  by  you  as  general,  were 
great  indeed,  but  still  they  were  performed  by  the  agency  of  a 
great  and  numerous  band  of  comrades.  But  in  this  exploit 
you  are  the  general,  and  you  are  your  own  sole  comrade:  and 
the  act  itself  is  such  that  no  lapse  of  time  will  ever  put  an  end 
to  your  monuments  and  trophies;  for  there  is  nothing  which 
is  wrought  by  manual  labor  which  time  will  not  sometime  or 
other  impair  or  destroy;  but  this  justice  and  lenity  of  yours 
will  every  day  grow  brighter  and  brighter,  so  that,  in  propor- 
tion as  time  takes  away  from  the  effect  of  your  deed,  in  the 
same  degree  it  will  add  to  your  glory.  And  you  had  already 
surpassed  all  other  conquerors  in  civil  wars,  in  equity,  and 
clemency,  but  this  day  you  have  surpassed  even  yourself.  I 
fear  that  this  which  I  am  saying  cannot,  when  it  is  only  heard, 


IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS    275 

be  understood  as  fully  as  I  myself  think  and  feel  it ;  you  ap- 
pear to  have  surpassed  victory  itself,  since  you  have  remitted 
in  favor  of  the  conquered  those  things  which  victory  had  put 
in  your  power.  For  though  by  the  conditions  of  the  victory 
itself,  we  who  were  conquered  were  all  ruined,  we  still  have 
been  preserved  by  the  deliberate  decision  of  your  clemency. 
You,  therefore,  deserve  to  be  the  only  man  who  is  never  con- 
quered, since  you  conquer  the  conditions  and  the  violent  priv- 
ileges of  victory  itself. 

And,  O  conscript  fathers,  remark  how  widely  this  deci- 
sion of  Caius  Caesar  extends.  For  by  it,  all  of  us  who,  under 
the  compulsion  of  some  miserable  and  fatal  destiny  of  the  re- 
public, were  driven  to  take  up  arms  as  we  did,  though  we  are 
still  not  free  from  the  fault  of  having  erred  as  men  may,  are 
at  all  events  released  from  all  imputation  of  wickedness.  For 
when,  at  your  entreaty,  he  preserved  Marcus  Marcellus  to  the 
republic,  he,  at  the  same  time,  restored  me  to  myself  and  to 
the  republic  though  no  one  entreated  him  in  my  favor,  and 
he  restored  all  the  other  most  honorable  men  who  were  in  the 
same  case  to  ourselves  and  to  their  country;  whom  you  now 
behold  in  numbers  and  dignity  present  in  this  very  assembly. 
He  has  not  brought  his  enemies  into  the  senate-house ;  but  he 
has  decided  that  the  war  was  undertaken  by  most  of  them 
rather  out  of  ignorance,  and  because  of  some  ungrounded  and 
empty  fear,  than  out  of  either  any  depraved  desires  or  cruelty. 

And  in  that  war,  I  always  thought  it  right  to  listen  to  all 
proposals  that  gave  any  hope  of  peace,  and  I  always  grieved, 
that  not  only  peace,  but  that  even  the  language  of  those  citi- 
zens who  asked  for  peace,  should  be  rejected.  For  I  never 
approved  of  either  that  or  of  any  civil  war  whatever ;  and  my 
counsels  were  always  allied  to  peace  and  peaceful  measures, 
not  to  war  and  arms.  I  followed  the  man  from  my  own  pri- 
vate feelings,  not  because  of  my  judgment  of  his  public  con- 
duct; and  the  faithful  recollection  of  the  grateful  disposition 
which  I  cherish  had  so  much  influence  with  me,  that  though 
I  had  not  only  no  desire  for  victory,  but  no  hope  even  of  it, 
I  rushed  on,  knowingly,  and  with  my  eyes  open,  as  it  were, 
to  a  voluntary  death.  And,  indeed,  my  sentiments  in  the  mat- 
ter were  not  at  all  concealed ;  for  in  this  assembly,  before  any 
decisive  steps  were  taken  either  way,  I  said  many  things  in 


276 


CICERO 


favor  of  peace,  and  even  while  the  war  was  going  on  I  retained 
the  same  opinions,  even  at  the  risk  of  my  life.1  And  from 
this  fact,  no  one  will  form  so  unjust  an  opinion  as  to  doubt 
what  Caesar's  own  inclination  respecting  the  war  was,  when, 
the  moment  that  it  was  in  his  power,  he  declared  his  opinion 
in  favor  of  saving  the  advisers  of  peace,  but  showed  his  anger 
against  the  others.  And,  perhaps,  that  was  not  very  strange 
at  a  time  when  the  event  of  the  war  was  still  uncertain,  and 
its  fortune  still  undecided.  But  he  who,  when  victorious,  at- 
taches himself  to  the  advisers  of  peace,  plainly  declares  that 
he  would  have  preferred  having  no  war  at  all  even  to  con- 
quering. 

And  in  this  matter  I  myself  am  a  witness  in  favor  of  Marcus 
Marcellus.  For  as  our  opinions  have  at  all  times  agreed  in 
time  of  peace,  so  did  they  then  in  respect  of  that  war.  How 
often  have  I  seen  him  affected  with  the  deepest  grief  at  the 
insolence  of  certain  men,  and  dreading  also  the  ferocity  of 
victory!  On  which  account  your  liberality,  O  Caius  Caesar, 
ought  to  be  more  acceptable  to  us  who  have  seen  those  things. 
For  now  we  may  compare,  not  the  causes  of  the  two  parties 
together,  but  the  use  which  each  would  have  made  of  victory. 
We  have  seen  your  victory  terminated  at  once  by  the  result 
of  'your  battles ;  we  have  seen  no  sword  unsheathed  in  the 
city.  The  citizens  whom  we  have  lost  were  stricken  down  by 
the  force  of  Mars,  not  by  evil  feelings  let  loose  by  victory ;  so 
that  no  man  can  doubt  that  Caius  Caesar  would  even  raise 
many  from  the  dead  if  that  were  possible,  since  he  does  pre- 
serve all  those  of  that  army  that  he  can. 

But  of  the  other  party  I  will  say  no  more  than  what  we 
were  all  afraid  of  at  the  time,  namely,  that  theirs  would  have 
been  too  angry  a  victory.  For  some  of  them  were  in  the  habit 
of  indulging  in  threats  not  only  against  those  of  their  enemies 
who  were  in  arms,  but  even  against  those  who  remained 
quiet;  and  they  used  to  say  that  the  matter  to  be  considered 
was  not  what  each  man  had  thought,  but  where  he  had  been. 

1  Cicero  was  not  present  at  the  battle  that  on  his  refusal  of  it,  young  Pompey 

of    Pharsalia,     but    remained    at     Dyr-  was    so    enraged,    that    he    would    have 

rachium,  vexed  at  his  advice  being  to-  killed  him  on  the  spot  if  Cato  had  not 

tally   disregarded.     Cato   also   remained  prevented  him.     And  this  is  what  Mid- 

at  Dyrrachium.  When  Labienus  brought  dleton  (who  quotes  the  sentence  in  the 

them  the  news  of  Pompey's  defeat,  Cato  text)   thinks  that   Cicero  is  alluding  to 

offered  Cicero  the  command,  as  the  su-  here, 
perior  in  dignity;  and  Plutarch  relates, 


IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS     277 

So  that  it  appears  to  me  that  the  immortal  gods,  even  if  they 
were  inflicting  punishment  on  the  Roman  people  for  some  of- 
fense, when  they  stirred  up  so  serious  and  melancholy  a  civil 
war,  are  at  length  appeased,  or  at  all  events  satiated,  and  have 
now  made  all  our  hopes  of  safety  depend  on  the  clemency  and 
wisdom  of  the  conqueror. 

Rejoice,  then,  in  that  admirable  and  virtuous  disposition  of 
yours;  and  enjoy  not  only  your  fortune  and  glory,  but  also 
your  own  natural  good  qualities,  and  amiable  inclinations  and 
manners ;  for  those  are  the  things  which  produce  the  greatest 
fruit  and  pleasure  to  a  wise  man.  When  you  call  to  mind 
your  other  achievements,  although  you  will  often  congratulate 
yourself  on  your  valor,  still  you  will  often  have  reason  to  thank 
your  good  fortune  also.  But  as  often  as  you  think  of  us 
whom  you  have  chosen  to  live  safely  in  the  republic  as 
well  as  yourself,  you  will  be  thinking  at  the  same  time  of 
your  own  exceeding  kindness,  of  your  own  incredible  liberal- 
ity, of  your  own  unexampled  wisdom ;  qualities  which  I  will 
venture  to  call  not  only  the  greatest,  but  the  only  real  bless- 
ings. For  there  is  so  much  splendor  in  genuine  glory,  so 
much  dignity  in  magnanimity  and  real  practical  wisdom,  that 
these  qualities  appear  to  be  given  to  a  man  by  virtue,  while 
all  other  advantages  seem  only  lent  to  him  by  fortune. 

Be  not  wearied  then  in  the  preservation  of  virtuous  men; 
especially  of  those  who  have  fallen,  not  from  any  evil  desires, 
or  depravity  of  disposition,  but  merely  from  an  opinion  of 
their  duty — a  foolish  and  erroneous  one  perhaps,  but  certainly 
not  a  wicked  one — and  because  they  were  misled  by  imaginary 
claims  which  they  fancied  the  republic  had  on  them.  For  it 
is  no  fault  of  yours  if  some  people  were  afraid  of  you ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  your  greatest  praise  that  they  have 
now  felt  that  they  had  no  reason  to  fear  you. 

But  now  I  come  to  those  severe  complaints,  and  to  those 
most  terrible  suspicions  that  you  have  given  utterance  to;  of 
dangers  which  should  be  guarded  against  not  more  by  you 
yourself  than  by  all  the  citizens,  and  most  especially  by  us 
who  have  been  preserved  by  you.  And  although  I  trust  that 
the  suspicion  is  an  ungrounded  one,  still  I  will  not  speak  so 
as  to  make  light  of  it.  For  caution  for  you  is  caution  for 
ourselves.  So  that,  if  we  must  err  on  one  side  or  the  other,  I 


278 


CICERO 


would  rather  appear  too  fearful,  than  not  sufficiently  prudent. 
But  still,  who  is  there  so  frantic?  Anyone  of  your  own 
friends?  And  yet  who  are  more  your  friends  than  those  to 
whom  you  have  restored  safety  which  they  did  not  venture  to 
hope  for?  Anyone  of  that  number  who  were  with  you?  It 
is  not  credible  that  any  man  should  be  so  insane  as  not  to  pre- 
fer the  life  of  that  man  who  was  his  general  when  he  obtained 
the  greatest  advantages  of  all  sorts,  to  his  own.  But  if  your 
friends  have  no  thoughts  of  wickedness,  need  you  take  precau- 
tions lest  your  enemies  may  be  entertaining  such?  Who  are 
they?  For  all  those  men  who  were  your  enemies  have  either 
already  lost  their  lives  through  their  obstinacy,  or  else  have 
preserved  them  through  your  mercy;  so  that  either  none  of 
your  enemies  survive,  or  those  who  do  survive  are  your  most 
devoted  friends. 

But  still,  as  there  are  so  many  hiding-places  and  so  many 
dark  corners  in  men's  minds,  let  us  increase  your  suspicions, 
for  by  so  doing  we  shall  at  the  same  time  increase  your  dili- 
gence. For  who  is  there  so  ignorant  of  everything,  so  very 
new  to  the  affairs  of  the  republic,  so  entirely  destitute  of 
thought  either  for  his  own  or  for  the  general  safety,  as  not  to 
understand  that  his  own  safety  is  bound  up  with  yours?  that 
the  lives  of  all  men  depend  on  your  single  existence?  I  my- 
self, in  truth,  while  I  think  of  you  day  and  night — as  I  ought 
to  do — fear  only  the  chances  to  which  all  men  are  liable,  and 
the  uncertain  events  of  health  and  the  frail  tenure  of  our  com- 
mon nature,  and  I  grieve  that,  while  the  republic  ought  to  be 
immortal,  it  depends  wholly  on  the  life  of  one  mortal  man. 
But  if  to  the  chances  of  human  life  and  the  uncertain  condi- 
tion of  man's  health  there  were  to  be  added  also  any  conspiracy 
of  wickedness  and  treachery,  then  what  god  should  we  think 
able  to  assist  the  republic,  even  if  he  were  to  desire  to  do  so? 

All  things,  O  Caius  Caesar,  which  you  now  see  lying  strick- 
en and  prostrate — as  it  was  inevitable  that  they  should  be — 
through  the  violence  of  war,  must  now  be  raised  up  again 
by  you  alone.  The  courts  of  justice  must  be  reestablished, 
confidence  must  be  restored,  licentiousness  must  be  repressed, 
the  increase  of  population  must  be  encouraged,  everything 
which  has  become  lax  and  disordered  must  be  braced  up  and 
strengthened  by  strict  laws.  In  so  vast  a  civil  war,  when 


IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS 


279 


there  was  such  ardor  of  feeling  and  of  warlike  preparation 
on  both  sides,  it  was  impossible  but  that — whatever  the  ulti- 
mate result  of  the  war  might  be — the  republic  which  had  been 
violently  shaken  by  it  should  lose  many  ornaments  of  its  dig- 
nity and  many  bulwarks  of  its  security,  and  that  each  general 
should  do  many  things  while  in  arms,  which  he  would  have 
forbidden  to  have  been  done  while  clad  in  the  garb  of  peace. 
And  all  those  wounds  of  war  thus  inflicted  now  require  your 
attention,  and  there  is  no  one  except  you  who  is  able  to  heal 
them.  Therefore,  I  was  concerned  when  I  heard  that  cele- 
brated and  wise  saying  of  yours,  "  I  have  lived  long  enough 
to  satisfy  either  nature  or  glory."  Sufficiently  long,  if  you 
please,  for  nature,  and  I  will  add,  if  you  like,  for  glory ;  but, 
which  is  of  the  greatest  consequence  of  all,  certainly  not  long 
enough  for  your  country. 

Give  up  then,  I  entreat  you,  that  wisdom  of  learned  men 
shown  in  their  contempt  of  death ;  do  not  be  wise  at  our  ex- 
pense. For  it  has  often  come  to  my  ears  that  you  are  in  the 
habit  of  using  that  expression  much  too  frequently — that  you 
have  lived  long  enough  for  yourself.  I  dare  say  you  have; 
but  I  could  only  be  willing  to  hear  you  say  so  if  you  lived 
for  yourself  alone,  or  if  you  had  been  born  for  yourself  alone. 
But  as  it  is,  as  your  exploits  have  brought  the  safety  of  all 
the  citizens  and  the  entire  republic  to  a  dependence  on  you, 
you  are  so  far  from  having  completed  your  greatest  labors, 
that  you  have  not  even  laid  the  foundations  which  you  design 
to  lay.  And  will  you  then  limit  your  life,  not  by  the  welfare 
of  the  republic,  but  by  the  tranquillity  of  your  own  mind? 
What  will  you  do,  if  that  is  not  even  sufficient  for  your 
glory,  of  which — wise  men  though  you  be — you  will  not  deny 
that  you  are  exceedingly  desirous  ?  "  Is  it  then,"  you  will 
say,  "  but  small  glory  that  we  shall  leave  behind  us  ?  It  may, 
indeed,  be  sufficient  for  others,  however  many  they  may  be, 
and  insufficient  for  you  alone.  For  whatever  it  is,  however 
ample  it  may  be,  it  certainly  is  insufficient,  as  long  as  there 
is  anything  greater  still.  And  if,  O  Caius  Caesar,  this  was  to 
be  the  result  of  your  immortal  achievements,  that  after  con- 
quering all  your  enemies,  you  were  to  leave  the  republic  in 
the  state  in  which  it  now  is ;  then  beware,  I  beg  of  you,  lest 
your  virtue  should  earn  admiration  rather  than  solid  glory; 


28o  CICERO 

since  the  glory  which  is  illustrious  and  which  is  celebrated 
abroad,  is  the  fame  of  many  and  great  services  done  either  to 
one's  own  friends,  or  to  one's  country,  or  to  the  whole  race  of 
mankind. 

This,  then,  is  the  part  which  remains  to  you ;  this  is  the  cause 
which  you  have  before  you ;  this  is  what  you  must  now  labor  at 
— to  settle  the  republic,  and  to  enjoy  it  yourself,  as  the  first  of  its 
citizens,  in  the  greatest  tranquillity  and  peacefulness.  And  then, 
if  you  please,  when  you  have  discharged  the  obligations  which 
you  owe  to  your  country,  and  when  you  have  satisfied  nature 
herself  with  the  devotion  of  your  life,  then  you  may  say  that 
you  have  lived  long  enough.  For  what  is  the  meaning  of  this 
very  word  "  long  "  when  applied  to  what  has  an  end  ?  And  when 
the  end  comes,  then  all  past  pleasure  is  to  be  accounted  as  noth- 
ing, because  there  is  none  to  come  after  it.  Although  that 
spirit  of  yours  has  never  been  content  with  this  narrow  space 
which  nature  has  afforded  us  to  live  in ;  but  has  always  been 
inflamed  with  a  desire  of  immortality.  Nor  is  this  to  be  con- 
sidered your  life  which  is  contained  in  your  body  and  in  your 
breath.  That — that,  I  say,  is  your  life,  which  will  flourish  in 
the  memory  of  all  ages ;  which  posterity  will  cherish ;  which 
eternity  itself  will  always  preserve.  This  is  what  you  must  be 
subservient  to ;  it  is  to  this  that  you  ought  to  display  yourself ; 
which  indeed  has  long  ago  had  many  actions  of  yours  to  ad- 
mire, and  which  now  is  expecting  some  which  it  may  also 
praise. 

Unquestionably,  posterity  will  stand  amazed  when  they  hear 
and  read  of  your  military  commands ;  of  the  provinces  which 
you  have  added  to  the  empire ;  of  the  Rhine,  of  the  ocean,  of 
the  Nile,  all  made  subject  to  us ;  of  your  countless  battles,  of 
your  incredible  victories,  of  your  innumerable  monuments  and 
triumphs.  But  unless  this  city  is  now  securely  settled  by  your 
counsels  and  by  your  institutions,  your  name  will  indeed  be 
talked  about  very  extensively,  but  your  glory  will  have  no 
secure  abode,  no  sure  home  in  which  to  repose.  There  will  be 
also  among  those  who  shall  be  born  hereafter,  as  there  has 
been  among  us,  great  disputes,  when  some  with  their  praises 
will  extol  your  exploits  to  the  skies,  and  others,  perhaps,  will 
miss  something  in  them — and  that,  too,  the  most  important 
thing  of  all — unless  you  extinguish  the  conflagration  of  civil 


IN  BEHALF  OF  MARCUS  CLAUDIUS  MARCELLUS    281 

war  by  the  safety  of  the  country,  so  that  the  one  shall  appear 
to  have  been  the  effect  of  destiny  and  the  other  the  work  of  your 
own  practical  wisdom.  Have  regard,  then,  to  those  judges 
who  will  judge  you  many  ages  afterward,  and  who  will  very 
likely  judge  you  more  honestly  than  we  can.  For  their  judg- 
ment will  be  unbiased  by  affection  or  by  ambition,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  will  be  untainted  by  hatred  or  by  envy.  And  even 
if  it  will  be  incapable  of  affecting  you  at  that  time  (which  is  the 
false  opinion  held  by  some  men),  at  all  events,  it  concerns  you 
now  to  conduct  yourself  in  such  a  manner  that  no  oblivion 
shall  ever  be  able  to  obscure  your  praises. 

The  inclinations  of  the  citizens  have  been  very  diverse,  and 
their  opinions  much  distracted ;  for  we  showed  our  variance, 
not  only  by  our  counsels  and  desires,  but  by  arms  and  warlike 
operations.  And  there  was  no  obscurity  in  the  designs  of,  and 
contention  between,  the  most  illustrious  generals:  many 
doubted  which  was  the  best  side;  many,  what  was  expedient 
for  themselves;  many,  what  was  becoming;  some  even  felt 
uncertain  as  to  what  it  was  in  their  power  to  do.  The  repub- 
lic has  at  last  come  to  the  end  of  this  miserable  and  fatal  war ; 
that  man  has  been  victorious  who  has  not  allowed  his  animos- 
ities to  be  inflamed  by  good  fortune,  but  who  has  mitigated 
them  by  the  goodness  of  his  disposition ;  and  who  did  not  con- 
sider all  those  with  whom  he  was  displeased  deserving  on  that 
account  of  exile  or  of  death.  Arms  were  laid  aside  by  some, 
were  wrested  from  the  hands  of  others.  He  is  an  ungrateful 
and  an  unjust  citizen,  who,  when  released  from  the  danger  of 
arms,  still  retains,  as  it  were,  an  armed  spirit,  so  that  that  man 
is  better  who  fell  in  battle,  who  spent  his  life  in  the  cause.  For 
that  which  seems  obstinacy  to  some  people  may  appear  con- 
stancy in  others.  But  now  all  dissension  is  crushed  by  the 
arms  and  extinguished  by  the  justice  of  the  conqueror ;  it  only 
remains  for  all  men  for  the  future  to  be  animated  by  one  wish, 
all  at  least  who  have  not  only  any  wisdom  at  all,  but  who  are 
at  all  in  their  senses.  Unless  you,  O  Caius  Caesar,  continue 
safe,  and  also  in  the  same  sentiments  as  you  have  displayed  on 
previous  occasions,  and  on  this  day  most  eminently,  we  can 
not  be  safe  either.  Wherefore  we  all — we  who  wish  this  consti- 
tution and  these  things  around  us  to  be  safe — exhort  and  en- 
treat you  to  take  care  of  your  own  life,  to  consult  your  own 


282  CICERO 

safety ;  and  we  all  promise  to  you  (that  I  may  say  also  on  behalf 
of  others  what  I  feel  respecting  myself),  since  you  think  that 
there  is  still  something  concealed,  against  which  it  is  necessary 
to  guard — we  promise  you,  I  say,  not  only  our  vigilance  and  our 
wariness  also  to  assist  in  those  precautions,  but  we  promise  to 
oppose  our  sides  and  our  bodies  as  a  shield  against  every  dan- 
ger which  can  threaten  you. 

But  let  my  speech  end  with  the  same  sentiment  as  it  began. 
We  all,  O  Caius  Caesar,  render  you  the  greatest  thanks,  and  we 
feel  even  deeper  gratitude  that  we  express ;  for  all  feel  the  same 
thing,  as  you  might  have  perceived  from  the  entreaties  and  tears 
of  all.  But  because  it  is  not  necessary  for  all  of  them  to  stand 
up  and  say  so,  they  wish  it  at  all  events  that  by  me,  who  am 
forced  in  some  degree  to  rise  and  speak,  should  be  expressed 
both  all  that  they  feel,  and  all  that  is  becoming,  and  all  that  I 
myself  consider  due  to  Marcus  Marcellus,  who  is  thus  by  you 
restored  to  this  order,  and  to  the  Roman  people,  and  to  the  re- 
public. For  I  feel  that  all  men  are  exulting,  not  in  the  safety 
of  one  individual  alone,  but  in  the  general  safety  of  all.  And  as 
it  becomes  the  greatest  possible  affection,  such  as  I  was  always 
well  known  by  all  men  to  have  toward  him,  so  that  I  scarcely 
yielded  to  Caius  Marcellus,  his  most  excellent  and  affectionate 
brother,  and  certainly  to  no  one  except  him,  that  love  for  him 
which  I  displayed  by  my  solicitude,  by  my  anxiety,  and  my 
exertions,  as  long  as  there  was  a  doubt  of  his  safety,  I  certainly 
ought  to  display  at  this  present  time,  now  that  I  am  relieved 
from  my  great  care  and  distress  and  misery  on  his  account. 

Therefore,  O  Caius  Caesar,  I  thank  you,  as  if — though  I  have 
not  only  been  preserved  in  every  sort  of  manner,  but  also  loaded 
with  distinctions  by  you — still,  by  this  action  of  yours,  a  crown- 
ing kindness  of  the  greatest  importance  was  added  to  the  al- 
ready innumerable  benefits  which  you  have  heaped  upon  me, 
which  I  did  not  before  believe  were  capable  of  any  augmenta- 
tion. 


SPEECH 
IN    DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS    LIGARIUS 


THE   ARGUMENT 

Quintus  Ligarius  was  a  Roman  knight,  who  had  been  one  of  the 
lieutenants  of  Considius,  the  proconsul  of  Africa,  and  one  of  Pompey's 
partisans,  and  as  such  had  borne  arms  against  Caesar  in  Africa,  on 
which  account  he  had  gone  into  voluntary  exile,  to  get  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  conqueror.  But  his  two  brothers  had  been  on  Caesar's 
side,  and  had  joined  Pansa  and  Cicero  in  interceding  with  Caesar  to 
pardon  him.  While  Caesar  was  hesitating,  Quintus  Tubero,  who  was 
an  ancient  enemy  of  his,  knowing  that  Caesar  was  very  unwilling  to 
restore  him  (for  Ligarius  was  a  great  lover  of  liberty),  impeached  him 
as  having  behaved  with  great  violence  in  the  prosecution  of  the  African 
War  against  Caesar,  who  privately  encouraged  this  proceeding,  and 
ordered  the  action  to  be  tried  in  the  forum,  where  he  sat  in  person 
as  judge  to  decide  it;  and  so  determined  was  he  against  Ligarius, 
that  he  is  said  to  have  brought  the  sentence  of  condemnation  with 
him  into  court,  already  drawn  up  and  formally  signed  and  sealed. 
But  he  was  prevailed  upon  by  Cicero's  eloquence,  which  extorted 
from  him  a  verdict  of  acquittal  against  his  will;  and  he  afterward 
pardoned  Ligarius  and  allowed  him  to  return  to  Rome.  Ligarius 
afterwards  became  a  great  friend  of  Brutus,  and  joined  him  in  the 
conspiracy  against  Caesar. 


284 


SPEECH  IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS 

IT  is  a  new  crime,  and  one  never  heard  of  before  this  day,  O 
Caius  Caesar,  which  my  relation  Quintus  Tubero  has 
brought  before  you,  when  he  accuses  Quintus  Ligarius 
with  having  been  in  Africa;  and  that  charge  Caius  Panso,  a  man 
of  eminent  genius,  relying  perhaps  on  that  intimacy  with  you 
which  he  enjoys,  has  ventured  to  confess.  Therfore  I  do  not 
know  which  way  I  had  best  proceed.  For  I  had  come  prepared, 
as  you  did  not  know  that  fact  of  your  own  knowledge,  and  could 
not  have  heard  it  from  any  other  quarter,  to  abuse  your  igno- 
rance in  order  to  further  the  safety  of  a  miserable  man.  But, 
however,  since  that  which  was  previously  unknown  has  been 
ferreted  out  by  the  diligence  of  his  enemy,  we  must,  I  suppose, 
confess  the  truth ;  especially  as  my  dear  friend  Caius  Pansa  has 
so  acted  that  it  would  not  now  be  in  my  power  to  deny  it. 
Therefore,  abandoning  all  dispute  of  the  fact,  all  my  speech 
must  be  addressed  to  your  mercy ;  by  which  many  have  already 
been  preserved,  having  besought  of  you,  not  a  release  from  all 
guilt,  but  pardon  from  admitted  error. 

You,  therefore,  O  Tubero,  have  that  which  is  of  all  things 
most  desirable  for  a  prosecutor,  a  defendant  who  confesses  his 
fault ;  but  still,  one  who  confesses  it  only  so  far  as  he  admits 
that  he  was  of  the  same  party  as  you  yourself,  O  Tubero,  were, 
and  as  that  man  worthy  of  all  praise,  your  father,  also  was. 
Therefore  you  must  inevitably  confess  yourselves  also  to  be 
guilty,  before  you  can  find  fault  with  any  part  of  the  conduct  of 
Ligarius. 

Quintus  Ligarius,  then,  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  sus- 
picion of  war,  went  as  lieutenant  into  Africa  with  Caius  Con- 
sidius,  in  which  lieutenancy  he  made  himself  so  acceptable,  both 
to  our  citizens  there  and  to  our  allies,  that  Considius  on  depart- 
ing from  the  province  could  not  have  given  satisfaction  to  those 
men  if  he  had  appointed  any  one  else  to  govern  it.  Therefore, 

285 


286  CICERO 

Quintus  Ligarius,  after  refusing  it  for  a  long  time  without  ef- 
fect, took  upon  himself  the  government  of  the  province  against 
his  will.  And  while  peace  lasted  he  governed  it  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  his  integrity  and  good  faith  were  most  acceptable 
both  to  our  citizens  and  to  our  allies.  On  a  sudden,  war  broke 
out,  which  those  who  were  in  Africa  heard  of  as  being  actually 
raging  before  any  rumor  of  its  preparation  had  reached  them. 
But  when  they  did  hear  of  it,  partly  out  of  an  inconsiderate 
eagerness,  partly  out  of  some  blind  apprehension,  they  sought 
for  some  one  as  a  leader,  at  first  only  with  the  object  of  secur- 
ing their  safety,  and  afterward  with  that  of  indulging  their 
party  spirit ;  while  Ligarius,  keeping  his  eyes  fixed  on  home, 
and  wishing  to  return  to  his  friends,  would  not  allow  himself 
to  be  implicated  in  any  business  of  the  sort.  In  the  meantime, 
Publius  Attius  Varus,  who  as  praetor  had  obtained  the  province 
of  Africa,  came  to  Utica.  Every  one  immediately  flocked  to 
him,  and  he  seized  on  the  government  with  no  ordinary  eager- 
ness, if  that  may  be  called  government  which  was  conferred 
on  him,  while  a  private  individual,  by  the  clamor  of  an  ignorant 
mob,  without  the  sanction  of  any  public  council.  Therefore, 
Ligarius,  who  was  anxious  to  avoid  being  mixed  up  in  any 
transactions  of  the  sort,  remained  quiet  for  some  time  on  the 
arrival  of  Varus. 

Up  to  this  point,  O  Caius  Caesar,  Quintus  Ligarius  is  free 
from  all  blame.  He  left  his  home,  not  only  not  for  the  purpose 
of  joining  in  any  war,  but  when  there  was  not  even  the  slightest 
suspicion  of  war.  Having  gone  as  lieutenant  in  time  of  peace, 
he  behaved  himself  in  a  most  peaceful  province  in  such  a  man- 
ner, that  it  wished  that  peace  might  last  forever.  Beyond  all 
question,  his  departure  from  Rome  with  such  an  object  ought 
not  to  be  and  cannot  be  offensive  to  you.  Was,  then,  his  remain- 
ing there  offensive?  Much  less.  For  if  it  was  no  discreditable 
inclination  that  led  to  his  going  thither,  it  was  even  an  honora- 
ble necessity  which  compelled  him  to  remain.  Both  these 
times,  then,  are  free  from  all  fault — the  time  when  he  first  went 
as  lieutenant,  and  the  time  when,  having  been  demanded  by  the 
province,  he  was  appointed  governor  of  Africa. 

There  is  a  third  time :  that  during  which  he  remained  in 
Africa  after  the  arrival  of  Varus ;  and  if  that  is  at  all  criminal, 
the  crime  is  one  of  necessity,  not  of  inclination.  Would  he, 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS  287 

if  he  could  possibly  have  escaped  thence  by  any  means  what- 
ever, would  he  .rather  have  been  at  Utica  than  at  Rome — with 
Publius  Attius,  in  preference  to  his  own  most  united  brothers  ? 
would  he  rather  have  been  among  strangers,  than  with  his 
own  friends  ?  When  his  lieutenancy  itself  had  been  full  of  re- 
gret and  anxiety  on  account  of  the  extraordinary  affection  sub- 
sisting between  him  and  his  brothers,  could  he  possibly  remain 
there  with  any  equanimity  when  separated  from  those  brothers 
by  the  discord  of  war  ? 

You  have,  therefore,  O  Csesar,  no  sign  as  yet  of  the  affec- 
tions of  Quintus  Ligarius  being  alienated  from  you.  And  ob- 
serve, I  entreat  you,  with  what  good  faith  I  am  defending  his 
cause.  I  am  betraying  my  own  by  so  doing.  O  the  admira- 
ble clemency,  deserving  to  be  celebrated  by  all  possible  praise, 
and  publicity,  and  writings,  and  monuments !  Marcus  Cicero 
is  urging  in  Ligarius's  defense  before  you,  that  the  inclinations 
of  another  were  not  the  same  as  he  admits  his  own  to  have 
been ;  nor  does  he  fear  your  silent  thoughts,  nor  is  he  under 
any  apprehension  as  to  what,  while  you  are  hearing  of  the  con- 
duct of  another,  may  occur  to  you  respecting  his  own. 

See  how  entirely  free  from  fear  I  am.  See  how  brilliantly  the 
light  of  your  liberality  and  wisdom  rises  upon  me  while  speak- 
ing before  you !  As  far  as  I  can,  I  will  lift  up  my  voice  so  that 
the  Roman  people  may  hear  me.  When  the  war  began,  O 
Caesar,  when  it  was  even  very  greatly  advanced  toward  its  end,  I, 
though  compelled  by  no  extraneous  force,  of  my  own  free  judg- 
ment and  inclination  went  to  join  that  party  which  had  taken 
up  arms  against  you.  Before  whom  now  am  I  saying  this? 
Forsooth,  before  the  man  who,  though  he  was  acquainted  with 
this,  nevertheless  restored  me  to  the  republic  before  he  saw  me ; 
who  sent  letters  to  me  from  Egypt,  to  desire  me  to  behave  as  I 
always  had  behaved ;  who,  when  he  himself  might  have  been 
the  sole  leader  of  the  Roman  people  in  the  whole  empire,  still 
permitted  me  to  be  the  other;  by  whose  gift  it  was  (this  very 
Caius  Pansa,  who  is  here  present,  bringing  me  the  news)  that 
I  retained  the  fasces  wreathed  with  laurel,  as  long  as  I  thought 
it  becoming  to  retain  them  at  all,  and  who  would  not  have  con- 
sidered that  he  was  giving  me  safety  at  all,  if  he  did  not  give  it 
me  without  my  being  stripped  of  any  of  my  previous  distinc- 
tions. 


288  CICERO 

Observe,  I  pray  you,  O  Tubero,  how  I,  who  do  not  hesitate 
to  speak  of  my  own  conduct,  do  not  venture  to  make  any  con- 
•  fession  with  respect  to  Ligarius :  and  I  have  said  thus  much 
respecting  myself,  to  induce  Tubero  to  excuse  me  when  I  say 
the  same  things  of  him.  For  I  look  in  the  forum  on  his  in- 
dustry and  desire  of  glory,  either  on  account  of  the  nearness 
of  our  relationship,  or  because  I  am  delighted  with  his  genius 
and  with  his  earnestness,  or  because  I  think  that  the  praises 
of  a  young  man  who  is  my  relative  redound  somewhat  to  my 
own  credit.  But  I  ask  this,  Who  is  it  who  thinks  that  it  was 
any  crime  in  Ligarius  to  have  been  in  Africa  ?  Why,  the  very 
man  who  himself  also  wished  to  be  in  Africa,  and  who  com- 
plains that  he  was  prevented  by  Ligarius  from  going  there, 
and  who  certainly  was  in  arms  and  fought  against  Caesar.  For, 
O  Tubero,  what  was  that  drawn  sword  of  yours  doing  in  the 
battle  of  Pharsalia?  against  whose  side  was  that  sword-point 
of  yours  aimed?  What  was  the  feeling  with  which  you  took 
up  arms  ?  What  was  your  intention  ?  Where  were  your  eyes  ? 
your  hands  ?  your  eagerness  of  mind  ?  What  were  you  desirous 
of?  What  were  you  wishing  for?  I  am  pressing  you  too 
hard.  The  young  man  appears  to  be  moved.  I  will  return  to 
myself.  I  also  was  in  arms  in  the  same  camp. 

But  what  other  object  had  we,  O  Tubero,  except  to  be  able 
to  do  what  this  man  can  do  now?  Shall,  then,  O  Caesar,  the 
speech  of  those  men  spur  you  on  to  deeds  of  cruelty,  whose  im- 
punity is  the  great  glory  of  your  clemency  ?  And  in  this  cause, 
in  truth,  O  Tubero,  I  am  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  discern  your 
usual  prudence,  but  much  more  so  to  see  the  sagacity  of  your 
father,  since  that  man,  eminent  both  for  genius  and  erudition, 
did  not  perceive  what  sort  of  case  this  was.  For  if  he  had  per- 
ceived it,  he  would,  I  doubt  not,  have  preferred  that  you  should 
conduct  it  in  any  manner  in  the  world,  rather  than  as  you  did. 

You  are  accusing  one  who  confesses  the  facts  which  you 
allege  against  him.  That  is  not  enough.  You  are  accusing 
one  who  has  a  case,  as  I  say,  better  than  your  own,  or,  as  you 
yourself  allow,  at  least  as  good  as  yours.  This  is  strange 
enough  ;  but  what  I  am  about  to  say  is  a  perfect  miracle.  That 
accusation  of  yours  does  not  tend  to  the  point  of  procuring 
the  condemnation  of  Quintus  Ligarius,  but  of  causing  his 
death.  And  this  is  an  object  which  no  Roman  citizen  has  ever 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS  289 

pursued  before  you.  That  way  of  acting  is  quite  foreign.  It 
is  the  hatred  of  fickle  Greeks  or  of  savage  barbarians  that  is 
usually  excited  to  the  pitch  of  thirsting  for  blood.  For  what 
else  is  your  object?  To  prevent  him  from  being  at  Rome? 
To  prevent  him  of  his  country?  To  hinder  him  from  living 
with  his  excellent  brothers,  with  this  Titus  Brocchus,  whom  you 
see  in  court,  his  uncle,  or  with  Brocchus's  son,  his  cousin  ?  To 
prevent  his  appearing  in  his  country  ?  Is  that  it  ?  Can  he  be 
more  deprived  of  all  these  things  than  he  is  already?  He  is 
prevented  from  approaching  Italy ;  he  is  banished.  You,  there- 
fore, do  not  wish  to  deprive  him  of  his  country,  of  which  he  al- 
ready is  deprived,  but  of  his  life. 

But  even  in  the  time  of  that  dictator  who  punished  with 
death  every  one  whom  he  disliked,  no  one  ever  proceeded  in 
that  manner  to  accomplish  such  an  end.  He  himself  ordered 
men  to  be  slain,  without  any  one  asking  him ;  he  even  invited 
men  to  slay  them  by  rewards ;  and  that  cruelty  of  his  was 
avenged  some  years  afterward  by  this  self-same  man  whom 
you  now  wish  to  become  cruel ! 

"  But  I  am  not  asking  for  his  death,"  you  will  say.  I  think 
indeed  that  you  do  not  intend  to  do  so,  O  Tubero.  For  I  know 
you,  I  know  your  father,  I  know  your  birth  and  your  name, 
and  the  pursuits  of  your  race  and  family ;  your  love  of  virtue, 
and  civilization,  and  learning ;  your  many  admirable  qualities — 
all  are  known  to  me.  Therefore  I  know  for  a  certainty  that  you 
are  not  thirsting  for  blood,  but  you  give  no  heed  to  the  effect 
of  your  prosecution.  For  the  transaction  has  this  tendency, 
to  make  you  seem  not  contented  with  that  punishment  under 
which  Quintus  Ligarius  is  at  present  suffering.  What  further 
punishment  then  is  there  but  death  ?  For  if  he  be  in  exile,  as 
he  is,  what  more  do  you  require  ?  That  he  may  never  be  par- 
doned ?  But  this  is  much  more  bitter  and  much  harsher.  That 
which  we  begged  for  at  his  house  with  prayers  and  tears,  throw- 
ing ourselves  at  his  feet,  trusting  not  so  much  to  the  strength 
of  our  cause  as  to  his  humanity,  will  you  now  struggle 
to  prevent  our  obtaining?  Will  you  interrupt  our  weeping? 
and  will  you  forbid  us  to  speak,  lying  at  his  feet,  with  the  voice 
of  suppliants  ?  If,  when  we  were  doing  this  at  his  house,  as  we 
did,  and  as  I  hope  we  did  not  do  in  vain,  you  had  all  on  a  sudden 
burst  in,  and  had  begun  to  cry  out,  "  O  Caius  Caesar,  beware 
19 


290  CICERO 

how  you  pardon,  beware  how  you  pity  brothers  entreating 
you  for  the  safety  of  their  brother,"  would  you  not  have  re- 
nounced all  humanity  by  such  conduct?  How  much  harder 
is  this,  for  you  to  oppose  in  the  forum  what  we  begged  of  him 
in  his  own  house!  and  while  numbers  are  in  this  distress,  to 
take  away  from  them  the  refuge  which  they  might  find  in  his 
clemency ! 

I  will  speak  plainly,  O  Caius  Caesar,  what  I  feel.  If  in  this 
splendid  fortune  of  yours  your  lenity  had  not  been  as  great  as 
you  of  your  own  accord — of  your  own  accord,  I  say  (I  know 
well  what  I  am  saying),  make  it,  that  victory  of  yours  would 
have  been  pregnant  with  the  bitterest  grief  to  the  state.  For 
how  many  of  the  conquering  party  must  have  been  found  who 
would  have  wished  you  to  be  cruel,  when  some  of  even  the  con- 
quered party  are  found  to  wish  it!  how  many  who,  wishing 
no  one  to  be  pardoned  by  you,  would  have  thrown  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  your  clemency,  when  even  those  men  whom  you 
yourself  have  pardoned  are  unwilling  that  you  should  be  merci- 
ful to  others ! 

But  if  we  could  prove  to  Caesar  that  Ligarius  was  actually 
not  in  Africa  at  all,  if  we  wished  to  save  an  unfortunate  citi- 
zen by  an  honorable  and  merciful  falsehood ;  still  it  would  not 
be  the  act  of  a  man,  in  a  case  of  such  danger  and  peril  to  a  fel- 
low-citizen, to  contradict  and  refute  our  falsehood ;  and  if  it 
were  decent  for  anyone  else  to  do  so,  it  would  certainly  not  be  so 
for  one  who  had  himself  been  in  the  same  case  and  condition. 
But,  however,  it  is  one  thing  to  be  unwilling  that  Caesar  should 
make  a  mistake,  and  another  to  be  unwilling  that  he  should  be 
merciful.  Therf  you  would  say,  "  Beware,  O  Caesar,  of  believ- 
ing all  this — Ligarius  was  in  Africa.  He  did  bear  arms  against 
you."  But  now  what  is  it  that  you  say  ?  "  Take  care  you  do 
not  pardon  him."  This  is  not  the  language  of  a  man ;  but  he 
who  uses  it  to  you,  O  Caius  Caesar,  will  find  it  an  easier  matter 
to  abjure  his  own  humanity  than  to  strip  you  of  yours. 

And  the  first  beginning,  and  the  first  proposition  of  Tubero, 
I  imagine,  was  this;  that  he  intended  to  speak  of  the  wicked- 
ness of  Quintus  Ligarius.  I  make  no  doubt  that  you  wondered 
how  it  was  that  no  one  made  this  statement  respecting  some 
one  else,  or  how  it  was  that  he  made  it  who  had  been  in  the  same 
condition  himself,  or  what  new  crime  it  was  which  he  was  bring- 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS  291 

ing  forward.  Do  you  call  that  wickedness,  Tubero  ?  Why  so  ? 
For  that  cause  has  not  as  yet  been  attacked  by  that  name.  Some 
call  it  mistake;  some  call  it  fear;  those  who  give  it  a  harder 
name  term  it  hope,  ambition,  hatred,  obstinacy ;  those  who  use 
the  hardest  language  style  it  rashness.  But  up  to  this  time 
no  one  except  you  has  ever  called  it  wickedness.  My  own 
opinion  is,  if  any  one  seeks  for  a  proper  and  accurate  name  for 
our  misfortune,  that  some  disaster  sent  by  destiny  descended 
upon  and  occupied  the  improvident  minds  of  men ;  so  that  no 
one  ought  to  \vonder  that  human  counsels  were  overruled  by 
divine  necessity. 

Let  it  be  allowed  to  us  to  be  miserable,  although  that  we 
cannot  be  when  this  man  is  our  conqueror.  But  I  am  not 
speaking  of  those  who  have  perished.  Grant  that  they  were 
ambitious,  that  they  were  angry,  that  they  were  obstinate  men ; 
but  still  let  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  for  he  is  dead,  and  let  many 
others  with  him,  be  free  from  the  imputation  of  wickedness, 
of  insanity,  of  parricide.  When  did  any  one  hear  such  an  ex- 
pression from  you,  O  Caius  Caesar?  or  what  other  object  did 
your  arms  propose  to  themselves  except  the  repelling  insult 
from  yourself?  What  was  it  that  was  accomplished  by  that 
invincible  army  of  yours,  beyond  the  preservation  of  its  own 
rights,  and  of  your  dignity?  What?  when  you  were  anxious 
for  peace,  was  it  your  object  to  be  able  to  come  to  terms  of 
agreement  with  the  wicked,  or  with  the  virtuous  part  of  the 
citizens?  To  me,  of  a  truth,  O  Caesar,  your  services  toward 
me,  immense  as  they  are,  would  certainly  not  appear  so  great, 
if  I  thought  that  I  had  been  preserved  by  you  while  you  con- 
sidered me  a  wicked  man.  And  how  could  you  possibly  have 
deserved  well  of  the  republic,  if  you  had  wished  so  many  wick- 
ed men  to  remain  with  all  their  dignity  unimpaired?  Orig- 
inally, O  Caesar,  you  considered  that  as  a  secession,  not  as  a 
declaration  of  war ;  you  considered  it  as  a  demonstration,  not 
of  hostile  hatred,  but  of  civil  dissension,  in  which  both  parties 
desired  the  safety  of  the  republic,  but  some  departed  from 
measures  calculated  for  the  general  welfare  out  of  an  error  of 
judgment,  and  some  out  of  party  spirit.  The  dignity  of  the 
leaders  was  nearly  on  a  par;  but  that  of  those  who  followed 
them  was  perhaps  not  quite  equal;  the  justice  of  the  cause, 
too,  was  at  that  time  doubtful,  because  there  was  something 


292  CICERO 

on  each  side  which  deserved  to  be  approved  of ;  but  now  that 
is  unquestionably  entitled  to  be  thought  the  better  cause  which 
even  the  gods  assisted.  But  now  that  your  clemency  is  known, 
who  is  there  who  does  not  think  well  of  that  victory,  in  which 
no  one  has  fallen  except  those  who  fell  with  arms  in  their 
hands  ? 

But  to  say  no  more  of  the  general  question,  let  us  come  to 
our  own  individual  case.  Which  do  you  think  was  easiest,  O 
Tubero,  for  Ligarius  to  depart  from  Africa,  or  for  you  to  ab- 
stain from  coming  into  Africa  ?  "  Could  we  so  abstain,"  you 
will  say,  "  after  the  Senate  had  voted  that  we  should  do  so  ?  " 
If  you  ask  me,  I  say,  certainly  not.  But  still  the  same  Senate 
had  appointed  Ligarius  lieutenant.  And  he  obeyed  them  at  a 
time  when  men  were  forced  to  obey  the  Senate ;  but  you  obeyed 
at  a  time  when  no  one  obeyed  them  who  did  not  like  it.  Do  I 
then  find  fault  with  you?  By  no  means;  for  a  man  of  your 
family,  of  your  name,  of  your  race,  of  your  hereditary  princi- 
ples, could  not  act  otherwise.  But  I  do  not  grant  that  you 
have  a  right  to  reprove  in  others  the  very  same  conduct  which 
you  boast  of  in  yourselves. 

Tubero's  lot  was  drawn  in  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the 
Senate  when  he  himself  was  not  present,  when  he  was  even 
hindered  by  sickness  from  being  present.  He  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  excuse  himself.  I  know  all  this  from  the  great 
intimacy  which  exists  between  Lucius  Tubero  and  myself; 
we  were  brought  up  together,  in  our  campaigns  we  were  com- 
rades, afterward  we  became  connected  by  marriage,  and 
throughout  the  whole  of  our  lives,  in  short,  we  have  been 
friends ;  it  has  been,  moreover,  a  great  bond  between  us,  that 
we  have  been  devoted  to  the  same  studies.  I  know,  therefore, 
that  Tubero  wished  to  remain  at  home  ;  but  there  was  a  person 
who  contrived  matters  in  such  a  way,  who  put  forth  that  most 
holy  name  of  the  republic  so  artfully,  that  even  had  his  senti- 
ments been  different  from  what  they  were,  he  would  not  have 
been  able  to  support  the  weight  of  his  language.  He  submitted 
to  the  authority  of  a  most  distinguished  man,  or,  I  should  rather 
say,  he  obeyed  him.  He  went  off  at  the  same  time  with  those 
men  who  were  already  embarked  in  the  same  cause,  but  he 
made  his  journey  slower  than  they.  Therefore,  he  arrived  in 
Africa  when  it  was  already  occupied ;  and  from  this  it  is  that 


293 

the  charge  against  Ligarius,  or  rather  the  enmity  against  him, 
has  its  rise.  For  if  it  be  a  crime  in  him  to  have  wished  to  hinder 
you,  it  is  a  no  less  serious  one  for  you  to  have  wished  to  obtain 
Africa,  the  citadel  of  all  the  provinces,  a  land  created  for  the 
purpose  of  waging  war  against  this  city,  than  for  somebody 
else  to  have  preferred  obtaining  it  himself — and  that  some- 
body was  not  Ligarius.  Varus  kept  saying  that  he  had  the 
command  there ;  the  fasces  he  certainly  had.  But  however  the 
case,  as  to  that  part  of  it,  may  be,  what  weight  is  there,  O  Tu- 
bero,  in  this  complaint  of  yours  ?  "  We  were  admitted  into 
the  province."  Well,  suppose  you  had  been  admitted?  was  it 
your  object  to  deliver  it  up  to  Caesar,  or  to  hold  it  against 
Caesar? 

See,  O  Caesar,  what  license,  or  rather  what  audacity,  your 
liberality  gives  us.  If  Tubero  replies  that  his  father  would 
have  given  up  to  you  that  province  to  which  the  Senate  and  the 
lot  which  he  drew  had  sent  him,  I  will  not  hesitate  in  severe 
language  to  reprove  that  design  of  his  before  you  yourself,  to 
whose  advantage  it  was  that  he  should  do  so.  For  even  if  the 
action  had  been  an  acceptable  one  to  you,  it  would  not  have 
been  thought  an  honest  one  by  you.  But,  however,  all  these 
topics  I  will  pass  over,  not  so  much  for  fear  of  offending  your 
most  patient  ears,  as  because  that  I  do  not  wish  that  Tubero 
should  appear  to  have  been  likely  to  do  what  he  never  thought 
of. 

You  two  came,  then,  into  the  province  of  Africa — the  prov- 
ince of  all  others  that  was  most  hostile  to  the  views  of  this  vic- 
torious party,  in  which  there  was  a  most  powerful  king,  an  en- 
emy to  this  cause,  and  in  which  the  inclinations  of  a  large  and 
powerful  body  of  Roman  settlers  were  entirely  adverse  to  it. 
I  ask  what  you  intend  to  do?  Though  I  do  not  really 
doubt  what  you  intended  to  do,  when  I  see  what  you  have  done. 
You  were  forbidden  to  set  foot  in  your  province,  and  forbidden, 
as  you  state  yourselves,  with  the  greatest  insults.  How  did 
you  bear  that  ?  To  whom  did  you  carry  your  complaints  of  the 
insults  which  you  had  received  ?  Why,  to  that  man  whose  au- 
thority you  had  followed  when  you  came  to  join  his  party  in 
the  war.  If  it  had  been  in  Caesar's  cause  that  you  were  coming 
to  the  province,  unquestionably,  when  excluded  from  the  prov- 
ince, it  was  to  him  that  you  would  have  gone.  But  you  came 


294 


CICERO 


to  Pompeius.  What  is  the  meaning,  then,  of  this  complaint 
which  you  now  urge  before  Caesar,  when  you  accuse  that  man 
by  whom  you  complain  that  you  were  prevented  from  waging 
war  against  Caesar?  And  as  to  this  part  of  the  business  you 
may  boast,  for  all  I  care,  even  though  it  will  be  falsely,  that  you 
would  have  given  the  province  up  to  Caesar,  even  if  you  had 
been  forbidden  by  Varus,  and  by  some  others.  But  I  will  con- 
fess that  the  fault  was  all  Ligarius's,  who  deprived  you  of  an 
opportunity  of  acquiring  so  much  glory. 

But  observe,  I  pray  you,  O  Caius  Caesar,  the  consistency  of 
that  most  accomplished  man,  Lucius  Tubero,  which  even  though 
I  thought  as  highly  of  it  as  I  do,  I  still  would  not  mention,  if 
I  were  not  aware  that  that  is  a  virtue  which  you  are  in  the  habit 
of  praising  as  much  as  any.  Where,  then,  was  there  ever  an 
example  of  such  great  consistency  in  any  man?  Consistency, 
do  I  say?  I  do  not  know  whether  I  might  not  more  fitly  call  it 
patience.  For  how  few  men  would  have  acted  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  return  to  that  same  party  by  which  he  had  been  re- 
jected in  a  time  of  civil  dissension,  and  rejected  even  with 
cruelty!  That  is  the  act  of  a  great  mind,  and  of  a  man  whom 
no  contumely,  no  violence,  and  no  danger  can  turn  from  a  side 
which  he  has  espoused,  and  from  an  opinion  which  he  has 
adopted.  Grant  that  in  all  other  respects  Tubero  and  Varus 
were  on  a  par,  as  to  honor,  that  is,  and  nobleness  of  birth,  and 
respectability,  and  genius,  which,  however,  was  by  no  means 
the  case;  at  all  events,  Tubero  had  this  great  advantage,  that 
he  had  come  to  his  own  province  with  a  legitimate  command, 
in  pursuance  of  a  resolution  of  the  Senate.  When  he  was  pre- 
vented from  entering  it,  he  did  not  betake  himself  to  Caesar, 
lest  he  should  appear  to  be  in  a  passion  ;  he  did  not  go  home,  lest 
he  should  be  thought  inactive  ;  he  did  not  go  into  any  other  dis- 
trict, lest  he  might  seem  to  condemn  that  cause  which  he  had 
espoused.  He  came  into  Macedonia  to  the  camp  of  Cnaeus 
Pompeius,  to  join  that  very  party  by  whom  he  had  been  repulsed 
with  every  circumstance  of  insult. 

What?  when  that  affair  had  had  no  effect  on  the  mind  of 
the  man  to  whom  you  came,  you  behaved,  after  that,  with  a 
more  languid  zeal,  I  suppose,  in  his  cause?  You  only  stayed 
in  some  garrison?  But  your  affections  were  alienated  from 
his  cause?  Or  were  we  all,  as  is  the  case  in  a  civil  war,  and 


IN   DEFENCE   OF   QUINTUS  LIGARIUS  295 

not  more  with  respect  to  you  two,  than  with  respect  to  others 
— were  we  all  wholly  occupied  with  a  desire  of  victory?  I,  in- 
deed, was  at  all  times  an  advocate  of  peace,  but  that  time  I  was 
too  late.  For  it  was  the  part  of  a  madman  to  think  of  peace 
when  he  saw  the  hostile  army  in  battle  array.  We  all,  every  one 
of  us,  I  say,  were  eager  for  victory ;  you  most  especially,  as  you 
had  come  into  a  place  where  you  must  inevitably  perish  if  your 
side  were  not  victorious.  Although,  as  the  result  now  turns 
out,  I  make  no  doubt  that  you  consider  your  present  safety 
preferable  to  what  would  have  been  the  consequences  of  vic- 
tory. 

I  would  not  say  these  things,  O  Tubero,  if  you  had  any  rea- 
son to  repent  of  your  consistency,  or  Caesar  of  his  kindness. 
I  ask  now  whether  you  are  seeking  to  avenge  your  own  injuries, 
or  those  of  the  republic?  If  those  of  the  republic,  what  reply 
can  you  make  with  respect  to  your  perseverance  in  the  cause 
of  that  other  party  ?  If  your  own,  take  care  that  you  are  not 
making  a  great  mistake  in  thinking  that  Caesar  will  be  angry 
with  your  enemies,  after  he  has  pardoned  his  own. 

Do  I,  then,  appear  to  you,  O  Caesar,  to  be  occupied  in  the 
cause  of  Ligarius  ?  Do  I  appear  to  be  speaking  of  his  conduct  ? 
In  whatever  I  said,  I  have  endeavored  to  refer  everything  to 
the  leading  idea  of  your  humanity,  or  clemency,  or  mercy, 
whichever  may  be  its  most  proper  name.  I  have,  indeed,  O 
Caius  Caesar,  pleaded  many  causes  with  you,  while  your  pur- 
suit of  honors  detained  you  in  the  forum  ;  but  certainly  I  never 
pleaded  in  this  way,  "Pardon  my  client,  O  judges;  he  has 
erred,  he  has  tripped,  he  did  not  think.  He  will  never  offend 
again."  This  is  the  sort  of  way  in  which  one  pleads  with  a 
parent ;  to  judges  one  says,  "  He  never  did  it,  he  never  thought 
of  it,  the  witnesses  are  false,  the  accusation  is  false."  Say,  O 
Caesar,  that  you  are  sitting  as  judge  on  the  conduct  of  Ligarius. 
Ask  me  in  what  garrison  he  was.  I  make  no  reply.  I  do  not 
even  adduce  these  arguments,  which,  perhaps,  might  have 
weight  even  with  a  judge :  "  He  went  as  a  lieutenant  before 
the  war  broke  out :  he  was  left  there  in  time  of  peace ;  he  was 
overtaken  by  the  war ;  in  the  war  itself  he  was  not  cruel ;  he  was 
in  disposition  and  zeal  wholly  yours."  This  is  the  way  in  which 
men  are  in  the  habit  of  pleading  before  a  judge.  But  I  am  ad- 
dressing a  parent.  "  I  have  erred ;  I  have  acted  rashly ;  I  re- 


296  CICERO 

pent ;  I  flee  to  your  clemency ;  I  beg  pardon  for  my  fault ;  I  en- 
treat you  to  pardon  me :"  If  no  one  has  gained  such  indulgence 
from  you,  it  is  an  arrogant  address.  But  if  many  have,  then 
do  you  give  us  assistance  who  have  already  given  us  hope.  Is 
it  possible  that  Ligarius  should  have  no  reason  for  hope,  when 
I  am  allowed  to  approach  you  even  for  the  purpose  of  entreat- 
ing mercy  for  another?  Although  the  hope  which  we  entertain 
in  this  cause  does  not  rest  upon  this  oration  of  mine,  nor  en 
the  zeal  of  those  who  entreat  you  for  Ligarius,  intimate  friends 
of  your  own. 

For  I  have  seen  and  known  what  it  was  that  you  mainly  con- 
sidered when  many  men  were  exerting  themselves  for  any- 
one's safety;  I  have  seen  that  the  causes  of  those  who  were  en- 
treating you  had  more  weight  with  you  than  the  persons  of 
the  advocates,  and  that  you  considered,  not  how  much  the  man 
who  was  entreating  you  was  your  friend,  but  how  much  he  was 
the  friend  of  him  for  whom  he  was  exerting  himself.  There- 
fore, you  grant  your  friends  so  many  favors,  that  they  who  en- 
joy your  liberality  appear  to  me  sometimes  to  be  happier  than 
you  yourself  who  give  them  so  much.  But,  however,  I  see,  as 
I  said  before,  that  the  causes  of  those  who  entreat  your  mercy 
have  more  weight  with  you  than  the  entreaties  themselves; 
and  that  you  are  most  moved  by  those  men  whose  grief,  which 
they  display  in  their  petitions  to  you,  is  the  most  genuine. 

In  preserving  Quintus  Ligarius  you  will  do  what  will  be  ac- 
ceptable to  numbers  of  your  intimate  friends;  but,  I  entreat 
you,  give  weight  to  the  considerations  which  are  accustomed 
to  influence  you.  I  can  mention  to  you  most  brave  men,  Sa- 
bines,  men  most  highly  esteemed  by  you;  and  the  whole  of  the 
Sabine  district,  the  flower  of  Italy  and  the  chief  strength  of  the 
republic.  You  are  well  acquainted  with  the  men.  Observe  the 
sadness  and  grief  of  all  these  men.  You  see  yourself  the  tears 
and  mourning  attire  of  Titus  Brocchus,  who  is  here  present, 
and  I  am  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  your  opinion  of  him  is :  you 
see  the  grief  of  his  son.  Why  need  I  speak  of  the  brothers  of 
Ligarius?  Do  not  fancy,  O  Caesar,  that  we  are  pleading  for 
the  life  of  one  individual  only.  You  must  either  retain  all  three 
of  the  Lagarii  in  the  city,  or  banish  them  all  three  from  the  city. 
Any  exile  is  more  desirable  for  them  than  their  own  country, 
their  own  house,  and  their  own  household  gods  will  be,  if  this 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS   LIGARIUS  297 

their  brother  is  banished  by  himself.  If  they  act  as  brothers 
should — if  they  behave  with  affection  and  with  genuine  grief, 
then  let  their  tears,  their  affection,  and  their  relationship  as 
brothers  move  you.  Let  that  expression  of  yours  have  weight 
now  which  gained  the  victory;  for  we  heard  that  you  said  that 
we  thought  all  men  are  enemies  but  those  who  were  with  us; 
but  that  you  considered  all  men  as  your  friends  who  were  not 
actually  arrayed  against  you.  Do  you  see,  then,  this  most  re- 
spectable band;  do  you  see  the  whole  house  of  the  Brocchi 
here  present,  and  Lucius  Marcius,  and  Caius  Caesetius,  and 
Lucius  Corfidius,  and  all  these  Roman  knights,  who  are  present 
here  in  mourning  garments — men  who  are  not  only  well  known 
to,  but  highly  esteemed  by  you  ?  They  all  were  with  you  then ; 
and  we  were  full  of  anger  against  them — we  were  attacking 
them ;  some  even  personally  threatened  them.  Preserve,  there- 
fore, their  friends  to  your  friends  ;  so  that,  like  everything  else 
which  has  been  said  by  you,  this,  too,  may  be  found  to  be 
strictly  true. 

But  if  you  were  able  to  look  into  the  hearts  of  the  Ligarii, 
so  as  to  see  the  perfect  unanimity  which  subsists  between 
them,  you  would  think  that  all  the  brothers  were  on  your 
side.  Can  anyone  entertain  a  doubt  that,  if  Quintus  Ligarius 
had  been  able  to  be  in  Italy,  he  would  also  have  adopted  the 
same  opinions  as  his  brothers  adopted?  Who  is  there  who 
is  not  acquainted  with  the  harmony  existing  between  them, 
united  and  molten  together,  as  I  may  say,  by  their  nearness 
of  age  to  one  another?  Who  does  not  feel  that  anything  in 
the  world  was  more  likely  than  that  these  brothers  should 
adopt  different  opinions  and  embrace  different  parties?  By 
inclination,  therefore,  they  were  all  with  you.  Owing  to  the 
necessity  of  the  times,  one  was  separated  from  you;  but  he, 
even  if  he  had  done  what  he  did  deliberately,  would  still  have 
been  only  like  those  men  whom,  nevertheless,  you  have  shown 
yourself  desirous  to  save. 

However,  grant  that  he  went  up  of  his  own  accord  to  the 
war,  and  that  he  departed,  not  only  from  you,  but  also  from 
his  brothers.  These  friends  of  your  own  entreat  you  to  par- 
don him.  I,  indeed,  at  the  time  when  I  was  present  at,  and 
mixed  up  in,  all  your  affairs,  remember  well  what  was  the  be- 
havior of  Titus  Ligarius  at  that  time,  when  he  was  city  quaes- 


298  CICERO 

tor,  with  reference  to  you  and  your  dignity.  But  it  is  of  no 
importance  for  me  to  remember  this.  I  hope  that  you,  too, 
who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  forgetting  anything,  except  the  in- 
juries which  have  been  done  to  you,  since  it  is  a  part  of  your 
character,  a  part  of  your  natural  disposition,  to  do  so,  while 
you  are  thinking  of  the  manner  in  which  he  conducted  him- 
self 1  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  quaestor,  and  while  you 
remember,  too,  how  some  other  quaestors  behaved,  I  hope,  I 
say,  that  you  will  also  recollect  this. 

This  Titus  Ligarius,  then,  who  had  at  that  time  no  other 
object  except  to  induce  you  to  think  him  attached  to  your 
interests,  and  a  virtuous  man  also  (for  he  could  never  foresee 
these  present  circumstances),  now  as  a  suppliant  begs  the  safe- 
ty of  his  brother  from  you.  And  when,  urged  by  the  recol- 
lection of  his  devotion  to  you,  you  have  granted  that  safety  to 
these  men,  you  will  by  so  doing  have  made  a  present  of  three 
most  virtuous  and  upright  brothers,  not  only  to  themselves, 
nor  to  these  men,  numerous  and  respectable  as  they  are,  nor 
to  us  who  are  their  intimate  friends,  but  also  to  the  republic. 
That,  therefore,  which  in  the  case  of  that  most  noble  and  most 
illustrious  man,  Marcus  Marcellus,  you  lately  did  in  the  sen- 
ate-house, do  now  also  in  the  forum  with  respect  to  these  most 
virtuous  brothers,  who  are  so  highly  esteemed  by  all  the  crowd 
here  present.  As  you  granted  him  to  the  Senate,  so  grant  this 
man  to  the  people,  whose  affections  you  have  always  consid- 
ered most  important  to  you.  And  if  that  day  was  one  most 
glorious  to  you,  and  at  the  same  time  most  acceptable  to  the 
Roman  people,  do  not,  I  entreat  you — do  not  hesitate  to  earn 
the  praise  of  a  glory  like  that  as  frequently  as  possible. 

For  there  is  nothing  so  calculated  to  win  the  affections  of 
the  people  as  kindness.  Of  all  your  many  virtues,  there  is 
none  more  admirable,  none  more  beloved  than  your  mercy. 
For  there  is  no  action  by  which  men  make  a  nearer  approach 
to  the  gods,  than  by  conferring  safety  on  others.  Fortune  has 
no  greater  gifts  for  you  than  when  it  bestows  on  you  the  abil- 

*  There  is  some  uncertainty  as  to  what  affairs,    which    is    certainly    true,    while 

Cicero    alludes    to    here.      Most    of    the  he  says  here  that  he  had  at  the  time  that 

commentators  think  that  Ligarius  must  he  alludes  to.    He  thinks,  therefore,  that 

have  been  quaestor  when   Metellus  and  Cicero   is   alluding  to   what   took    place 

the  rest  of  his  colleagues  endeavored  to  in     the     consulship     of     Lentulus     and 

prevent   Caesar  from   taking  the   money  Philippus   (the  year  of  Cicero's  recall), 

from  the  public  treasury;  but  Fabritius  respecting   the   vote  of  pay   to   Caesar's 

objects  to  this  view,   that  at  that   time  army  in  Gaul. 
Cicero  had  no  connection  with  Caesar's 


IN  DEFENCE  OF  QUINTUS  LIGARIUS  299 

ity — nature  has  no  better  endowment  for  you  than  when  it 
bestows  on  you  the  will,  to  save  as  many  people  as  possible. 
The  cause  of  my  client,  perhaps,  requires  a  longer  speech  than 
this :  a  shorter  one  would  certainly  be  sufficient  for  a  man  of 
your  natural  disposition.  Wherefore,  as  I  think  it  more  de- 
sirable for  you  to  converse,  as  it  were,  with  yourself,  than  for 
me  or  anyone  else  to  be  speaking  to  you,  I  shall  now  make 
an  end.  This  only  will  I  remind  you  of,  that  if  you  do  grant 
this  protection  to  him  who  is  absent,  you  will  be  giving  it  also 
to  all  these  men  who  are  here  present. 


SPEECH 
IN    BEHALF    OF    KING    DEIOTARUS 


THE  ARGUMENT 

This  speech,  like  those  for  Marcellus  and  Ligarius,  was  addressel 
to  Caesar.  Deiotarus  was  king  of  Galatia,  and  during  Cicero's  pro- 
consulship  in  Cilicia  he  had  formed  a  friendship  with  him,  and  had 
been  of  great  assistance  to  him  in  his  campaign  against  Pacorus  and 
the  Parthians.  Having  been  an  adherent  of  Pompey,  he  had  already 
been  deprived  of  a  considerable  part  of  his  dominions  by  Csesar,  and 
he  was  now  accused  by  his  grandson,  who  was  aware  of  Caesar's  in- 
veterate dislike  of  him,  of  having  formed  a  design  against  Caesar's 
life  four  years  before,  when  he  entertained  him  in  his  palace  on  his 
return  from  Egypt.  It  is  probable  that  Csesar  was  aware  of  the  ground- 
lessness of  the  charge,  but  countenanced  it,  and  allowed  it  to  be 
brought  before  him,  in  the  hopes  of  finding  a  pretext  for  stripping 
the  king  of  all  the  rest  of  his  dominions.  Brutus  espoused  Deiotarus's 
cause  very  warmly,  and  went  towards  Spain  to  meet  Caesar,  and  made 
him  a  most  earnest  address  in  favor  of  Deiotarus. 

The  present  trial  was  held  in  Caesar's  house,  and  Cicero  proved  the 
king's  innocence  so  completely  that  Caesar  was  unable  to  condemn 
him;  but,  as  he  would  not  acquit  him,  he  adjourned  the  further  con- 
sideration of  the  matter  till  he  himself  could  go  into  the  East  and 
investigate  the  affair  on  the  spot.  This  speech  was  delivered  in  the 
year  of  Caesar's  fourth  consulship;  the  year  before  he  was  killed. 


302 


SPEECH   IN  BEHALF  OF  KING  DEIOTARUS 

IN  all  causes  of  more  than  ordinary  importance,  O  Caius 
Caesar,  I  am  accustomed,  at  the  beginning  of  my  speech, 
to  be  more  vehemently  affected  than  either  common  cus- 
tom or  my  own  age  appears  to  require.  And  in  this  particular 
cause  I  am  agitated  by  so  many  considerations,  that  in  pro- 
portion as  my  fidelity  to  my  friend  inspires  me  with  zeal  to 
defend  the  safety  of  King  Deiotarus,  in  the  same  proportion  do 
my  fears  take  away  from  my  ability  to  do  so.  In  the  first 
place,  I  am  speaking  in  defence  of  the  life  and  fortunes  of  a 
king;  and  although  there  is  no  particular  injustice  in  such  a 
fact,  especially  when  it  is  one's  self  who  is  in  danger,  yet  it  is 
so  unusual  for  a  king  to  be  tried  for  his  life,  that  up  to  this 
time  no  such  thing  has  ever  been  heard  of.  In  the  second  place, 
I  am  compelled  now  to  defend  against  a  most  atrocious  accusa- 
tion that  very  king  whom  I,  in  common  with  all  the  Senate, 
used  formerly  to  extol  on  account  of  his  uninterrupted  services 
toward  our  republic.  There  is  this  further  consideration,  that 
I  am  disturbed  by  the  cruelty  of  one  of  the  prosecutors,  and  by 
the  unworthy  conduct  of  the  other. 

O  cruel,  not  to  say  wicked  and  impious,  Castor!  a  grand- 
son, who  has  brought  his  grandfather  into  danger  of  his  life, 
and  has  caused  that  man  to  dread  his  youth,  whose  old  age  he 
was  bound  to  defend  and  protect ;  who  has  sought  to  recom- 
mend his  entrance  into  life  to  our  favor  by  impiety  and  wick- 
edness; who  has  instigated  his  grandfather's  slave,  whom  he 
corrupted  by  bribes,  to  accuse  his  master,  and  has  carried  him 
away  from  the  feet  of  the  king's  ambassadors. 

But  when  I  saw  the  countenance  and  heard  the  words  of 
this  runaway  slave,  accusing  his  master — his  absent  master — 
his  master,  who  was  a  most  devoted  friend  to  our  republic — 
I  did  not  feel  so  much  grief  at  the  depressed  condition  of  the 
monarch  himself,  as  fear  for  the  general  fortunes  of  everyone. 

3°3 


304  CICERO 

For  though,  according  to  the  usage  of  our  ancestors,  it  is  not 
lawful  to  examine  a  slave  as  a  witness  against  his  master,  not 
even  by  torture — in  which  mode  of  examination  pain  might, 
perhaps,  elicit  the  truth  from  a  man  even  against  his  will — 
a  slave  has  arisen,  who,  without  any  compulsion,  accuses  him 
against  whom  he  might  not  legally  say  a  word  even  on  the 
rack. 

This  thing  also,  O  Caius  Caesar,  at  times  disturbs  me; 
which,  however,  I  cease  to  fear  when  I  come  to  a  complete 
recollection  of  your  disposition.  For  in  principle  it  is  an  un- 
just thing,  but  by  your  wisdom  it  becomes  a  most  just  one. 
For  it  is  a  serious  business  (if  you  consider  the  matter  by 
itself)  to  speak  concerning  a  crime  before  that  man  against 
whose  life  you  are  accused  of  having  meditated  that  crime; 
for  there  is  hardly  anybody  who,  when  he  is  a  judge  in  any 
matter  in  which  his  own  safety  is  at  stake,  does  not  act  with 
more  partiality  toward  himself  than  toward  the  accused  per- 
son; but,  O  Caius  Caesar,  your  admirable  and  extraordinary 
natural  virtue  to  a  great  extent  releases  me  from  this  fear. 
For  I  am  not  so  much  afraid  what  you  may  wish  to  decide 
with  respect  to  King  Deiotarus,  as  I  am  sure  what  you  wish 
to  decide  in  all  other  cases. 

I  am  affected,  also,  by  the  unusual  circumstances  of  the  trial 
in  this  place ;  because  I  am  pleading  so  important  a  cause — 
one,  the  fellow  of  which  has  never  been  brought  under  discus- 
sion— within  the  walls  of  a  private  house ;  I  am  pleading  it 
out  of  the  hearing  of  any  court  or  body  of  auditors,  which  are 
a  great  support  and  encouragement  to  an  orator.  I  rest  on 
nothing  but  your  eyes,  your  person  and  countenance ;  I  behold 
you  alone ;  the  whole  of  my  speech  is  necessarily  confined  to 
you  alone.  And  if  those  considerations  are  very  important  as 
regards  my  hope  of  establishing  the  truth,  they  for  all  that  are 
impediments  of  the  energy  of  my  mind,  and  to  the  proper  en- 
thusiasm and  ardor  of  speaking. 

For  if,  O  Caius  Caesar,  I  were  pleading  this  cause  in  the 
forum,  still  having  you  for  my  auditor  and  my  judge,  with  what 
great  cheerfulness  would  the  concourse  of  the  Roman  people 
inspire  me !  For  what  citizen  would  do  otherwise  than  favor 
that  king,  the  whole  of  whose  life  he  would  recollect  had  been 
spent  in  the  wars  of  the  Roman  people  ?  I  should  be  beholding 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF  KING   DEIOTARUS      305 

the  senate-house,  I  should  be  surveying  the  forum,  I  should  call 
the  heaven  above  me  itself  to  witness ;  and  so,  while  calling  to 
mind  the  kindness  of  the  immortal  gods,  and  of  the  Roman 
people,  and  of  the  Senate  to  king  Deiotarus,  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  me  to  be  at  a  loss  for  topics  or  arguments  for  my 
speech.  But  since  the  walls  of  a  house  narrow  all  these  topics, 
and  since  the  pleading  of  the  cause  is  greatly  crippled  by  the 
place,  it  behooves  you,  O  Csesar,  who  have  yourself  often 
pleaded  for  many  defendants,  to  consider  within  yourself  what 
my  feelings  at  present  must  be;  so  that  your  justice,  and  also 
your  careful  attention  in  listening  to  me,  may  the  more  easily 
lessen  my  natural  agitation  and  anxiety. 

But  before  I  say  anything  about  the  accusation  itself,  I  will 
say  a  few  words  about  the  hopes  entertained  by  the  accusers. 
For  though  they  appear  to  be  possessed  of  no  great  skill  or  ex- 
perience in  affairs,  nevertheless  they  have  never,  surely,  under- 
taken this  cause  without  some  hope  or  other  and  some  definite 
design. 

They  were  not  ignorant  that  you  were  offended  with  king 
Deiotarus.  They  recollected  that  he  had  been  already  exposed 
to  some  inconvenience  and  loss  on  account  of  the  displeasure 
with  which  you  regarded  him ;  and  while  they  knew  that  you 
were  angry  with  him,  they  had  had  proofs  also  that  you  were 
friendly  to  them.  And  as  they  would  be  speaking  before  you 
of  a  matter  involving  personal  danger  to  yourself,  they  reck- 
oned that  a  fictitious  charge  would  easily  lodge  in  your  mind, 
which  was  already  sore.  Wherefore,  O  Caius  Caesar,  first  of 
all  by  your  good  faith,  and  wisdom,  and  firmness,  and  clemency 
deliver  us  from  this  fear,  and  prevent  our  suspecting  that  there 
is  any  ill  temper  lurking  in  you.  I  entreat  you  by  that  right 
hand  of  yours  which  you  pledged  in  token  of  everlasting  friend- 
ship to  king  Deiotarus ;  by  that  right  hand,  I  say,  which  is  not 
more  trustworthy  in  wars  or  in  battles  than  in  promises  and 
pledges  of  good  faith.  You  have  chosen  to  enter  his  house, 
you  have  chosen  to  renew  with  him  the  ancient  ties  of  friend- 
ship and  hospitality.  His  household  gods  have  received 
you  under  their  protection;  the  altars  and  hearths  of  king 
Deiotarus  have  beheld  you  at  peace  with  and  friendly  towards 
him. 

You  are  accustomed,  O  Caius  Caesar,  not  only  to  be  prevailed 


306 


CICERO 


upon  by  entreaties  easily,  but  to  be  prevailed  on  once  for  all. 
No  enemy  has  ever  been  reconciled  to  you  who  has  found  any 
remnant  of  hostility  remaining  in  your  breast  afterward.  Al- 
though, who  is  there  who  has  not  heard  of  your  complaints 
against  king  Deiotarus  ?  You  have  never  accused  him  as  being 
an  enemy  to  you,  but  as  being  a  friend  very  slack  in  his  duty; 
because  his  inclination  led  him  more  to  friendships  with  Cnaeus 
Pompeius  than  with  you.  And  yet  that  very  fact  you  said  that 
you  would  have  pardoned,  if  when  he  sent  reinforcements  and 
even  his  son  to  Pompeius,  he  had  himself  availed  himself  of  the 
excuse  furnished  him  by  his  age.  And  in  this  way,  while  you 
were  acquitting  him  of  the  most  important  charges,  you  left  be- 
hind only  the  little  blame  of  his  friendship  for  another.  There- 
fore, you  not  only  abstained  from  punishing  him,  but  you  re- 
leased him  from  all  apprehension;  you  acknowledged  him  as 
your  friend,  you  left  him  king.  And,  indeed,  his  proceedings 
were  not  dictated  by  any  hatred  of  you ;  he  fell  by  the  general 
error  of  us  all.  That  king,  whom  the  Senate  had  repeatedly  ad- 
dressed by  this  name,  using  it  in  decrees  most  complimentary  to 
him,  and  who  from  his  youth  up  had  always  considered  that 
order  most  important  and  most  sacred,  being  a  man  living  at  a 
great  distance,  and  a  foreigner  by  birth,  was  perplexed  by  the 
same  affairs  which  embarrassed  us  who  were  born  and  who  at  all 
times  had  lived  in  the  middle  of  the  republic. 

When  he  heard  that  men  had  taken  arms  by  the  authority  of 
the  Senate,  acting  with  great  unanimity;  that  the  defence  of  the 
republic  had  been  intrusted  to  the  consuls,  the  praetors,  the 
tribunes  of  the  people,  and  to  all  of  us  who  had  received  the  title 
of  Imperator,  he  was  agitated  in  his  mind,  and  being  a  man  most 
deeply  attached  to  this  empire,  he  became  alarmed  for  the  safety 
of  the  Roman  people,  in  which  also  he  considered  that  his  own 
was  bound  up.  And  being  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  alarm,  he 
thought  it  best  to  remain  quiet  himself.  But  he  was  beyond 
measure  agitated  when  he  heard  that  the  consuls  had  fled  from 
Italy,  and  all  the  men  of  consular  rank  (for  so  it  was  reported) 
with  them,  and  all  the  Senate,  and  that  the  whole  of  Italy  was 
emptied.  For  the  road  was  wide  open  for  all  such  messengers 
and  reports  to  travel  to  the  East,  and  no  true  accounts  followed. 
He  never  heard  a  word  of  the  conditions  which  you  offered,  nor 
of  your  eagerness  for  concord  and  peace,  nor  of  the  way  in 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS 


3°7 


which  certain  men  conspired  against  your  dignity.  And  though 
this  was  the  state  of  things,  still  he  continued  quiet  until  ambas- 
sadors and  letters  came  to  him  from  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  Pardon 
Deiotarus,  pardon  him,  I  entreat  you,  O  Caesar,  if  he,  though  a 
king,  yielded  to  the  authority  of  that  man  whom  we  all  followed, 
and  on  whom  both  gods  and  men  had  heaped  every  sort  of  dis- 
tinction, and  on  whom  you  yourself  had  conferred  the  most 
numerous  and  most  important  honors1  of  all.  Nor,  indeed, 
does  it  follow  that,  because  your  exploits  have  thrown  a  cloud 
over  the  praises  of  others,  we  have,  therefore,  entirely  lost  all 
recollection  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius.  Who  is  there  who  is  ignorant 
how  great  the  name  of  that  man  was,  how  great  his  influence, 
how  great  his  renown  in  every  description  of  war,  how  great 
were  the  honors  paid  him  by  the  Roman  people,  and  by  the 
Senate,  and  by  you  yourself?  He  had  surpassed  all  his  prede- 
cessors in  glory  as  much  as  you  have  surpassed  all  the  world. 
Therefore,  we  used  to  count  up  with  admiration  the  wars  and 
the  victories,  and  the  triumphs,  and  the  consulships,  of  Cnaeus 
Pompeius.  But  yours  we  are  wholly  unable  to  reckon. 

To  him  then  came  king  Deiotarus  in  this  miserable  and  fatal 
war,  to  him  whom  he  had  previously  assisted  in  his  regular  wars 
against  the  enemies  of  Rome,  and  with  whom  he  was  bound,  not 
only  by  ties  of  hospitality,  but  also  by  personal  intimacy.  And 
he  came,  either  because  he  had  been  asked,  as  a  friend;  or  be- 
cause he  had  been  sent  for  as  an  ally;  or  because  he  had  been 
summoned,  like  one  who  had  learned  to  obey  the  Senate;  and 
last  of  all,  he  joined  the  losing,  not  the  winning  side. 

Therefore,  after  the  result  of  the  battle  of  Pharsalia,  he  de- 
parted from  Pompeius;  he  did  not  choose  to  persist  in  hopes  of 
which  he  saw  no  end.  He  thought  he  had  done  quite  enough  to 
satisfy  the  claims  of  duty,  if  indeed  he  was  under  any  such  obli- 
gations, and  that  he  had  made  quite  mistake  enough  if  he  had 
ignorantly  erred.  He  returned  home;  and  all  the  time  that  you 
were  engaged  in  the  Alexandrian  War,  he  consulted  your  in- 
terests. He  supported  in  his  palaces  and  from  his  own  resources 
the  army  of  Cnaeus  Domitius,  that  most  distinguished  man.  He 
sent  money  to  Ephesus  to  him  whom  you  selected  as  the  most 
faithful  and  most  highly  esteemed  of  all  your  friends.  He  gave 
him  money  a  second  time;  he  gave  him  money  a  third  time  for 

1  For  Caesar  had  given  Pompey  his  daughter  in  marriage. 


3o8  CICERO 

you  to  employ  in  the  war,  though  he  was  forced  to  sell  property 
by  auction  in  order  to  raise  it.  He  exposed  his  own  person  to 
danger,  and  he  was  with  you,  serving  in  your  army  against 
Pharnaces,  and  he  considered  him  as  his  dwn  enemy  because  he 
was  yours.  And  all  those  actions  of  his  were  accepted  by  you, 
O  Caius  Caesar,  in  such  a  spirit  that  you  paid  him  the  highest 
possible  honors,  and  confirmed  him  in  the  dignity  and  title  of 
king. 

He,  therefore,  having  been  not  only  released  from  danger  by 
you,  but  having  been  also  distinguished  by  you  with  the  highest 
honors,  is  now  accused  of  having  intended  to  assassinate  you  in 
his  own  house — a  thing  which  you  cannot  in  truth  possibly 
suspect,  unless  you  consider  him  to  have  been  utterly  mad. 
For,  to  say  nothing  of  what  a  deed  of  enormous  wickedness  it 
would  have  been  to  assassinate  his  guest  in  the  sight  of  his  own 
household  gods;  what  a  deed  of  enormous  unreasonableness  it 
would  have  been  to  have  extinguished  the  brightest  light  of  all 
nations,  and  of  all  human  recollection ;  what  a  deed  of  enormous 
ferocity  it  would  have  been  to  have  had  no  dread  of  the  con- 
queror of  the  whole  earth;  what  a  sign  of  an  inhuman  and  un- 
grateful disposition  it  would  have  been  to  be  found  to  behave 
like  a  despot  to  the  very  man  by  whom  he  had  been  addressed  as 
a  king;  to  say  nothing  of  all  this,  what  a  deed  of  utter  frenzy 
would  it  have  been  to  rouse  all  kings,  of  whom  there  were  num- 
bers on  the  borders  of  his  own  kingdom,  all  free  nations,  all  the 
allies,  all  the  provinces,  all  the  arms,  in  short,  of  every  people  on 
earth  against  himself  alone !  To  what  misery  would  he  not  have 
exposed  his  kingdom,  his  house,  his  wife,  and  his  beloved  son, 
not  merely  by  the  accomplishment  of  such  a  crime,  but  even  by 
the  bare  idea  of  it! 

But  I  suppose  that  improvident  and  rash  man  did  not  see  all 
this!  On  the  contrary,  who  is  a  more  considerate  man  than  he? 
Who  is  more  secret  in  his  plans?  Who  is  more  prudent?  Al- 
though in  this  place  it  is  not  so  much  on  the  ground  of  clever- 
ness and  prudence  that  it  seems  to  me  that  I  should  defend  Deio- 
tarus,  as  on  that  of  good  faith  and  religious  feeling  and  conduct. 
You  are  well  acquainted,  O  Caius  Caesar,  with  the  honesty  of  the 
man,  with  his  virtuous  habits,  with  his  wisdom  and  firmness. 
Indeed,  who  is  there  who  has  ever  heard  of  the  name  of  the 
Roman  people,  who  has  not  heard  also  of  the  integrity,  and  wis- 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS       309 

dom,  and  virtue,  and  good  faith  of  Deiotarus?  A  crime,  then, 
that  cannot  be  imputed  to  an  imprudent  man,  on  account  of  his 
fear  of  instant  destruction,  nor  to  an  unscrupulous  man,  unless 
he  be  at  the  same  time  utterly  insane;  will  you  pretend  that  such 
a  crime  was  thought  of  by  a  most  virtuous  man,  and  one  too 
who  was  never  accounted  a  fool? 

And  in  what  a  way  do  you  try  and  support  this  invention!  in 
a  way  not  only  not  calculated  to  win  belief,  but  not  even  such  as 
to  give  rise  to  the  least  suspicion.  When,  says  the  prosecutor, 
you  had  come  to  the  Luceian  fort,  and  had  turned  aside  to  the 
palace  of  the  king  your  entertainer,  there  was  a  certain  place 
where  all  those  things  were  arranged  which  the  king  had  settled 
to  offer  you  as  presents.  To  this  place  he  intended  to  conduct 
you  on  coming  out  of  the  bath,  before  you  lay  down ;  for  there 
were  armed  men  stationed  in  that  very  place  on  purpose  to  kill 
you.  This  is  the  charge;  this  is  the  reason  why  a  runaway 
should  accuse  a  monarch,  a  slave  accuse  his  master!  I,  in  truth, 
O  Caius  Caesar,  at  the  very  beginning,  when  the  cause  was  origi- 
nally laid  before  me,  was  struck  with  a  suspicion  that  Phidippus 
the  physician,  one  of  the  king's  slaves,  who  had  been  sent  with 
the  ambassadors,  had  been  corrupted  by  that  young  man.  He 
has  suborned  the  physician  to  act  as  informer,  thought  I ;  he  will 
be  sure  to  invent  some  accusation  of  poisoning.  Although  my 
conjecture  was  some  way  from  the  exact  truth,  it  was  not  much 
out  as  to  the  general  principle  of  the  accusation.  What  says  the 
physician?  Not  a  word  about  poison.  But  in  the  first  place, 
that  might  have  been  administered  much  more  secretly  in  a 
potion  or  in  food ;  in  the  second  place,  a  crime  is  committed  in 
that  way  with  greater  impunity,  because  when  it  has  been  done, 
it  can  be  denied.  If  he  had  assassinated  you  openly,  he  would 
have  brought  upon  himself  not  only  the  hatred  of  all  nations, 
but  their  arms  also.  If  he  had  slain  you  by  poison,  to  be  sure 
he  never  would  have  been  able  to  conceal  the  action  from  the 
divine  wrath  of  the  Jupiter  who  presides  over  hospitality,  but  he 
might  perhaps  have  concealed  it  from  men.  Are  we,  then,  to 
suppose  that  that  which  he  might  have  attempted  in  secret,  and 
have  executed  with  great  caution,  he  never  intrusted  to  you  who 
were  a  skilful  physician,  and,  as  he  believed,  a  faithful  servant, 
and  yet  that  he  could  conceal  nothing  from  you  with  respect  to 
arms,  and  blood,  and  ambuscade?  And  how  cleverly  is  the 


3IO  CICERO 

whole  accusation  worked  up!  It  was  your  own  good  fortune, 
says  he,  that  fortune  which  always  preserves  you,  which  saved 
you  then.  You  said  that  you  did  not  wish  at  that  moment  to  see 
the  presents. 

What  happened  afterward?  Did  Deiotarus,  after  he  had 
failed  in  accomplishing  the  business  at  that  time,  at  once  dismiss 
his  army?  was  there  no  other  place  where  he  could  set  an  am- 
bush? But  you  said  that  when  you  had  supped  you  would 
come  back  again  the  same  way;  and  you  did  so.  Was  it  a  very 
difficult  job  to  detain  the  armed  men  one  or  two  hours  in  the 
place  where  they  had  been  stationed?  After  you  had  spent  your 
time  at  the  banquet  courteously  and  merrily,  then  you  went  back 
that  way,  as  you  had  said ;  and  then  and  there  you  found  that  the 
behavior  of  Deiotarus  to  you  resembled  that  of  king  Attalus  to 
Publius  Africanus:  to  whom,  as  we  have  read,  he  sent  the  most 
magnificent  gifts  from  Asia  to  Numantia;  which  Africanus  ac- 
cepted in  the  sight  of  all  his  army.  And  when  Deiotarus,  being 
present  with  you,  had  done  all  this  in  a  kingly  spirit  and  with 
royal  courtesy,  you  departed  to  your  chamber.  I  entreat  you, 
O  Caesar,  trace  back  your  recollection  of  that  time,  bring  that 
day  back  before  your  eyes,  remember  the  countenances  of  the 
men  who  were  then  gazing  on  you  and  admiring  you;  was  there 
any  trepidation  among  them?  any  disorder?  Was  anything 
done  except  in  an  orderly  and  quiet  manner — except  as  became 
the  establishment  of  a  dignified  and  honorable  man?  What  rea- 
son then  can  be  imagined  why  he  should  have  intended  to  mur- 
der you  after  you  had  bathed,  and  why  he  should  not  have 
chosen  to  do  so  after  you  had  supped?  "  Oh,  he  put  it  off," 
says  the  prosecutor,  "  till  the  next  day,  in  order  that  when  he 
arrived  at  the  Luceian  fort,  he  might  there  put  his  designs  in 
execution."  I  do  not  understand  the  effect  of  his  changing  the 
place;  but  still  the  whole  case  was  conducted  in  an  incrimina- 
tory manner.  "  When,"  says  the  prosecutor,  "  you  said  after 
supper  that  you  wished  to  vomit,  they  began  to  lead  you  to  the 
bath-room;  for  that  was  the  place  where  the  ambuscade  was; 
but  still  that  same  fortune  of  yours  saved  you ;  you  said  that  you 
had  rather  go  to  your  bedroom."  May  the  gods  forgive  you, 
you  runaway  slave!  Are  you  so  utterly,  not  only  worthless  and 
infamous,  but  also  stupid  and  senseless?  What?  were  they 
brazen  statues  that  he  had  planted  in  ambush,  so  that  they  could 
not  be  moved  from  the  bath-room  to  the  bed-chamber? 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING    DEIOTARUS      311 

Here  you  have  the  whole  charge  as  to  the  ambuscade :  for  he 
said  nothing  further.  "  In  all  this,"  says  he,  "  I  was  his  accom- 
plice." What  do  you  mean?  Was  he  so  demented  as  to  allow 
a  man  to  leave  him  who  was  privy  to  so  enormous  a  wickedness? 
As  even  to  send  him  to  Rome,  where  he  knew  his  grandson  was, 
who  was  most  bitterly  hostile  to  him,  and  where  Caius  Caesar 
was,  against  whom  he  had  laid  this  plot?  especially  when  he  was 
the  only  man  who  could  give  any  information  against  him  in  his 
absence.  "  My  brothers  too,"  says  he,  "  because  they  also  were 
privy  to  it,  he  threw  into  prison."  When,  then,  he  was  putting 
those  men  in  prison  whom  he  had  with  him,  did  he  leave  you  at 
large  and  send  you  to  Rome — you  who  knew  the  very  same  facts 
which  you  say  that  they  knew? 

The  remainder  of  the  accusation  was  of  a  twofold  character; 
one  part  of  which  was,  that  the  king  was  always  at  his  watch- 
tower  because  he  was  so  disaffected  to  your  interests;  the  other, 
that  he  had  levied  a  large  army  against  you.  As  to  the  army,  I 
will  reply  to  that  charge  in  a  very  few  words,  as  I  will  to  the  rest 
of  the  charges.  King  Deiotarus  never  had  any  forces  with 
which  he  could  have  made  war  upon  the  Roman  people;  but 
only  just  sufficient  to  protect  his  own  territories  from  the  incur- 
sions of  enemies,  and  to  send  reinforcements  to  our  generals. 
And  before  this  time»he  was  able  to  maintain  a  larger  force  than 
he  can  now;  at  present  he  can  with  difficulty  keep  up  a  very  small 
one.  "  Oh,  but  he  sent  to  Caecilius;  I  don't  know  who  it  was  he 
sent,  but  he  threw  those  whom  he  sent,  or  rather  ordered  to  go, 
into  prison,  because  they  would  not  go."  I  do  not  stop  to  ask 
how  far  it  is  probable  that  a  king  should  have  had  no  one  to 
send;  or  that  those  whom  he  ordered  to  go  should  not  have 
obeyed  him ;  or  how  it  was  that  those  men  who  refused  obedi- 
ence in  so  important  an  affair,  were  put  in  prison,  and  not  exe- 
cuted; but  still,  when  he  was  sending  Caecilius,2  was  he  ignor- 
ant that  that  party  had  been  defeated,  or  did  he  think  that 
Caecilius  a  person  of  great  importance?  a  man  whom  he,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  our  leading  men,  would  have  despised 
because  he  knew  him,  and  just  as  much  because  he  did  not  know 
him.  He  added,  also,  that  he  did  not  send  his  best  cavalry;  I 
dare  say,  they  were  old  troops,  O  Caesar :  nothing  to  your  cav- 

*  This  was  Quintius  Ca-cilius  Brassus,  some  of  the  remnants  of  his  army  in 
a  zealous  partisan  of  Pompey's,  who  Syria,  with  which  he  afterward  joined 
after  the  battle  of  Pharsalia  collected  Cassius  after  the  death  of  Caesar. 


312 


CICERO 


airy;  but  still  they  were  the  best  men  he  had,  his  picked  men. 
He  says  that  one  of  the  body  was  recognized  as  being  a  slave ; 
I  do  not  believe  it;  I  never  heard  of  it.  But  still,  even  if  such  a 
thing  had  happened,  I  should  not  conceive  that  that  was  any 
fault  of  the  king's. 

"  He  was  very  ill-disposed  towards  you."  How  so?  He 
hoped,  I  suppose,  that  you  would  find  it  difficult  to  get  out  of 
Alexandria,  on  account  of  the  nature  of  the  country  and  of  the 
river.  But,  at  that  very  time,  he  supplied  you  with  money,  and 
with  provisions  for  your  army ;  he  co-operated  to  the  utmost  of 
his  power  with  the  officer  to  whom  you  had  given  command  in 
Asia;  he  assisted  you  when  victorious,  not  only  in  the  way  of 
affording  you  hospitality,  but  with  you  he  encountered  danger, 
and  stood  by  your  side  in  the  array  of  battle. 

The  African  War  followed:  there  were  unfavorable  reports 
spread  about  you,  which  also  roused  that  frantic  Caecilius. 
What  on  that  occasion  was  the  disposition  evinced  towards  you 
by  the  king?  He  sold  property  by  auction,  and  preferred  strip- 
ping himself,  to  not  supplying  you  with  money.  "  But,"  says 
the  prosecutor,  "  at  that  very  time  he  was  sending  men  to  Nicaea, 
and  to  Ephesus,  to  catch  every  report  that  came  from  Africa,  and 
to  bring  it  to  him  with  all  speed."  Therefore,  when  news  came 
that  Domitius  had  perished  by  shipwreck,  and  that  you  were 
blockaded  in  some  fortress,  he  quoted  a  Greek  verse  with  refer- 
ence to  Domitius,  having  the  same  meaning  as  that  of  our  poet: 

"  So  can  we  well  afford  to  lose  our  friends, 
If  our  foes  perish  in  the  same  destruction:  "  3 

an  expression  which  he  would  never  have  uttered  had  he  been 
ever  so  much  an  enemy  to  you.  For  he  himself  is  a  man  of  a 
humane  disposition;  and  that  verse  is  a  savage  one.  Besides, 
how  could  a  man  be  a  friend  to  Domitius,  who  was  an  enemy  to 
you?  Moreover,  why  should  he  be  an  enemy  to  you,  by  whom 
he  might  even  have  been  put  to  death  according  to  the  laws  of 
war,  and  by  whom  he  recollected  that  he  and  his  son  had  been 
appointed  kings? 

What  is  the  next  statement?  What  is  the  next  step  taken  by 
this  scoundrel?  He  says  that  Deiotarus  was  so  elated  at  this, 

1  The    Greek     proverb     is     given    by        from   any   Latin   poet,   it   is  not   known 
Plutarch  as  tpptrta  <friAos  <rbv  IXSPV-  If  the        who  he  was. 
Latin  iambic  quoted  by  Cicero  comes 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS      313 

that  he  drowned  his  joy  in  wine,  and  danced  naked  at  a  banquet. 
What  cross  is  there  that  could  be  a  sufficient  punishment  for  this 
slave?  Did  anyone  ever  see  Deiotarus  dancing,  did  anyone 
ever  see  him  drunk?  All  kingly  virtues  are  united  in  that  man, 
and  that  I  think  yourself  are  well  aware  of,  O  Caesar,  but  most 
especially  is  that  singular  and  admirable  economy  of  his  con- 
spicuous. Although  this  is  an  attribute  for  which  I  know  that  it 
is  not  usual  to  praise  kings.  To  say  that  a  man  is  economical  is 
not  much  praise  for  a  king.  To  be  brave,  just,  severe,  dignified, 
magnanimous,  open-handed,  beneficent,  liberal — these  are  the 
praises  suited  to  a  king.  Economy  is  a  virtue  for  a  private  in- 
dividual. Let  everyone  take  it  as  he  please:  but  I  consider 
economy — that  is  to  say,  moderation  and  temperance — the 
very  greatest  of  virtues.  And  this  existed  in  this  man  from  his 
earliest  youth,  and  was  experienced  by,  and  known  to,  all  Asia, 
and  by  all  our  magistrates  and  ambassadors,  and  by  all  the  Ro- 
man knights  who  trafficked  in  Asia. 

It  was  by  many  successive  steps  of  dutiful  service  towards  our 
republic  that  he  arrived  at  this  title  of  king;  but  still,  whatever 
leisure  he  had  from  the  wars  of  the  Roman  people,  he  devoted 
entirely  to  cultivating  friendship  and  intimacy  with  our  citizens, 
and  to  uniting  his  affairs  and  interests  to  theirs.  So  that  he  was 
not  only  considered  a  noble  tetrarch,  but  also  an  excellent  father 
of  a  family,  and  a  most  industrious  farmer  and  grazier.  Did  he, 
then,  who,  while  a  young  man,  before  he  had  arrived  at  his  sub- 
sequent high  rank,  never  did  anything  that  was  inconsistent  with 
the  most  rigid  virtue  and  the  greatest  dignity,  after  he  had  raised 
to  himself  the  esteem  in  which  he  is  now  held,  and  when  he  had 
become  of  so  advanced  an  age,  did  he  dance? 

You  ought,  O  Castor,  rather  to  imitate  the  manner  and  prin- 
ciples of  your  grandfather,  than  calumniate  a  most  virtuous  and 
most  illustrious  man  with  the  language  of  a  runaway  slave. 
Even  if  you  had  had  a  grandfather  who  was  a  dancer,  and  not  a 
man  from  whom  examples  of  modesty  and  chastity  might  be  de- 
prived, still  this  reproach  is  one  which  is  very  little  suited  to  your 
age.  Those  pursuits  to  which  he  had  been  habituated  from  his 
earliest  age — not  dancing,  but  such  as  would  train  him  to  wield 
his  arms  and  manage  his  horses  in  the  best  manner — those  all 
had  now  failed  him  at  his  advanced  time  of  life ;  so  that  we  used  to 
wonder,  when  several  men  had  lifted  Deiotarus  on  his  horse,  how 


3I4  CICERO 

so  old  a  man  as  he  could  contrive  to  stick  on.  But  this  young 
man,  who  was  a  soldier  of  mine  in  Cilicia,  and  a  comrade  of  mine 
in  Greece,  how  was  he  used  to  ride  about  in  that  army  of  ours, 
with  his  own  picked  body  of  cavalry,  whom  his  father  had  sent 
with  him  to  join  Pompeius!  what  gallops  he  used  to  take!  how. 
he  used  to  display  his  skill!  What  a  parade  he  used  to  make! 
How  did  he  refuse  to  yield  to  anyone  in  his  zeal  and  eagerness 
for  the  success  of  that  cause!  But  even  after  the  army  was  lost, 
I,  who  had  at  all  times  been  an  adviser  of  peace,  but  who,  after 
the  battle  of  Pharsalia,  urged  everyone  not  to  lay  aside,  but  to 
throw  away  their  arms,  could  never  bring  this  young  man  to 
adopt  my  advice,  both  because  of  his  own  eagerness  for  that  war, 
and  because  he  thought  himself  bound  to  satisfy  the  expecta- 
tions of  his  father. 

Happy  is  that  house  which  has  obtained,  not  only  impunity, 
but  license  to  accuse  others!  Unfortunate  Deiotarus,  who  is 
not  only  accused  by  one  who  was  in  the  same  camp  with  him, 
before  you,  but  who  is  impeached  even  by  his  own  relations. 
Cannot  you,  O  Castor,  be  content  with  your  own  good  fortune 
without  bringing  misery  on  your  relations? 

Grant  that  there  may  be  enmity  between  you;  which,  how- 
ever, there  ought  not  to  be;  for  it  was  king  Deiotarus  who  raised 
your  family,  when  abject  and  obscure,  from  darkness  into  light. 
Who  ever  heard  of  your  father,  or  who  he  was,  before  they  heard 
whose  son-in-law  he  was?  But  even  supposing  you  repudiated 
the  name  of  the  connection  with  ever  so  much  ingratitude  and 
impiety,  still  you  might  have  conducted  your  quarrel  like  a  man, 
and  not  pursue  him  with  a  false  accusation,  not  seek  his  life,  not 
prosecute  him  on  a  capital  charge.  Be  it  so:  let  even  this  ex- 
cess of  bitterness  and  hatred  be  permitted.  Was  it  to  go  to  such 
an  extent,  that  all  the  laws  of  ordinary  life  and  of  common  safety, 
and  even  of  humanity,  are  to  be  violated?  to  tamper  with  slaves 
by  words,  to  corrupt  them  by  hopes  and  promises ;  to  lead  them 
away  to  your  own  house,  to  arm  them  against  their  masters,  to 
wage  an  impious  war  not  against  one  relation,  but  against  every 
family  in  the  world?  For  that  corruption  of  slaves,  if  it  be  not 
only  unpunished,  but  even  approved  by  such  a  great  authority 
as  that  of  this  tribunal,  no  walls,  no  laws,  no  rights  will  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  protection  of  our  safety.  For  when  that  which  is 
in  our  houses  and  is  our  own  can  sally  out  with  impunity  and 


SPEECH   IN    BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS       3x5 

fight  against  us,  slavery  then  gets  the  mastery,  and  the  master's 
position  is  slavery. 

Shame  on  the  times,  and  on  our  present  habits!  That  Cnaeus 
Domitius,  whom  we  as  boys  saw  consul,  and  censor,  and  chief 
pontiff,  when,  as  tribune  of  the  people,  he  had  impeached  Marcus 
Scaurus,  the  chief  man  of  the  state,  before  the  people,  and  when 
a  slave  of  Scaurus  had  come  secretly  to  him  at  his  own  house, 
and  had  offered  to  give  information  with  respect  to  charges 
which  might  be  brought  against  his  master,  ordered  the  slave  to 
be  apprehended,  and  taken  to  Scaurus.  See  what  a  difference 
there  is  now — although  it  is  a  shame  of  me  to  compare  Castor  to 
Domitius;  still  he  sent  his  slave  back  to  his  enemy,  you  have  se- 
duced one  from  your  grandfather;  he  refused  to  listen  to  one 
though  he  had  not  been  bribed,  you  have  bribed  one;  he  rejected 
a  slave  as  his  assistant  against  his  master,  you  have  employed  one 
even  as  an  accuser.  But  was  it  only  once  that  that  fellow  was 
corrupted  by  you?  Did  he  not  escape  back  again  to  the  ambas- 
sadors after  he  had  been  brought  forward  by  you,  and  after  he 
had  been  with  you?  Did  he  not  even  come  to  this  Cnaeus  Do- 
mitius? Did  not  he,  in  the  hearing  of  this  Servius  Sulpicius, 
that  most  illustrious  man,  who  is  present  here,  and  of  this  Titus 
Torquatus,  a  most  virtuous  young  man,  who  is  also  present,  con- 
fess that  he  had  been  bribed  by  you,  and  that  it  was  by  your 
promises  that  he  had  been  instigated  to  this  dishonesty? 

What  then  is  the  object  of  this  shameless,  and  barbarous,  and 
unrestrained  inhumanity?  Was  it  for  this  that  you  came  into 
this  city,  that  you  might  corrupt  the  principles  predominant  in, 
and  the  examples  furnished  by  this  city,  and  that  you  might  pol- 
lute the  humanity  of  our  state  by  your  own  private  ferocity? 

And  how  ingeniously  have  all  your  charges  been  collected! 
Blesamius,  says  he  (for  it  was  in  his  name,  a  very  excellent  man, 
and  one  who  was  a  stranger  to  you,  that  he  was  calumniating 
you,  O  Deiotarus),  used  to  write  to  the  king,  that  you,  O  Caesar, 
were  very  unpopular;  that  you  were  considered  a  tyrant;  that 
men  were  exceedingly  offended  at  your  statue  having  been 
placed  among  those  of  the  kings ;  that  you  were  never  well  re- 
ceived on  your  appearance  in  public.  Do  not  you  perceive,  O 
Caesar, that  these  statements  were  collected  by  these  fellows,  from 
the  city  conversation  of  spiteful  men?  Could  Blesamius  have 
written  to  say  that  Caesar  was  a  tyrant?  Ay,  for  he  had  seen  the 


CICERO 

heads  of  many  citizens  exposed;  he  had  seen  many  men  by  the 
orders  of  Caesar  ill-treated,  scourged  and  executed ;  he  had  seen 
many  houses  pillaged  and  destroyed ;  he  had  seen  the  forum  filled 
with  armed  troops!  No;  those  things  which  previously  we 
always  have  felt  after  victories  in  civil  war,  we  have  not  seen  now, 
when  you  have  been  our  conqueror.  You  are  the  only  man — 
you  I  say,  O  Caius  Caesar,  are  the  only  man,  by  whose  victory  no 
one  has  perished  except  with  arms  in  his  hand.  And  can  the 
man  whom  we,  free  men,  born  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  perfect 
liberty  of  the  Roman  people,  consider  not  only  no  tyrant,  but  as 
even  the  most  merciful  man  possible  in  the  use  of  victory,  can  he 
appear  a  tyrant  to  Blesamius,  who  is  living  under  a  king?  For 
who  complains  about  a  statue,  especially  about  one  single  statue, 
when  he  sees  such  a  number?  Great  reason  have  we,  indeed,  to 
envy  a  man  his  statues,  when  we  do  not  grudge  him  trophies; 
for  if  it  be  the  place  which  provokes  envy,  surely  there  is  no  place 
more  open  and  fit  for  a  statue  than  the  rostra.  And  as  to  the 
way  in  which  he  is  received  in  public,  why  need  I  make  any  reply 
at  all?  for  public  applause  has  never  been  desired  by  you,  and 
sometimes,  owing  to  the  amazement  with  which  men  have 
viewed  your  achievements,  it  has  even  been  stifled  by  the  excess 
of  their  admiration;  and  perhaps,  too,  it  has  been  omitted  be- 
cause nothing  vulgar  could  possibly  appear  worthy  of  you. 

I  do  not  think  that  anything  has  been  omitted  by  me;  but 
some  topics  have  been  reserved  for  the  end  of  my  speech,  and  they 
are  of  such  a  nature  that  they  ought  to  reconcile  you  cordially  to 
Deiotarus — for  I  am  not  now  afraid  of  your  being  angry  with 
him ;  I  am  apprehensive  rather  of  your  suspecting  that  he  har- 
bors some  resentment  against  you.  And  that  suspicion,  believe 
me,  O  Caesar,  is  as  remote  as  possible  from  the  truth.  For  he 
recollects  only  what  he  still  has  left  owing  to  you,  and  not  what 
he  has  lost  by  your  means ;  nor  does  he  consider  that  he  has  been 
deprived  of  anything  by  you,  but,  being  aware  that  it  was  neces- 
sary for  you  to  give  many  rewards  to  many  people,  he  did  not 
think  it  hard  that  you  should  take  something  from  him  who  had 
been  on  the  other  side.  In  truth,  if  that  great  prince,  Antiochus 
the  Great,  the  king  of  Asia,  who,  after  he  had  been  conquered  by 
Scipio,  was  ordered  to  consider  Mount  Taurus  as  the  boundary 
of  his  dominions,  and  was  deprived  of  all  this  Asia  which  is  now 
a  province  of  our  own — if  he  was  accustomed  to  say  that  he  had 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS       317 

been  kindly  treated  by  the  Roman  people,  because  he  had  been 
released  by  them  from  the  care  of  an  overgrown  empire,  and  was 
now  at  liberty  to  enjoy  a  kingdom  of  moderate  extent,  Deiotarus 
can  comfort  himself  more  easily.  For  Antiochus  had  suffered 
a  chastisement  for  his  insanity,  my  client  only  for  an  error. 
You,  O  Caesar,  gave  everything  to  Deiotarus  when  you  gave 
him  and  his  son  the  title  of  king;  and  as  long  as  he  is  allowed  to 
retain  and  preserve  this  title,  he  does  not  think  that  the  kindness 
of  the  Roman  people  is  at  all  diminished,  or  that  the  Senate  has 
come  to  any  unfavorable  decision  respecting  him.  He  pre- 
serves a  great  and  lofty  spirit,  and  will  never  succumb  to  his 
enemies,  nor  even  to  fortune. 

He  thinks  that  by  his  previous  conduct  he  has  given  birth  to 
much,  and  that  by  his  own  courage  and  virtue  he  still  has  much 
which  he  cannot  possibly  be  deprived  of.  For  what  fortune,  or 
what  accident,  or  what  injury  can  happen  to  Deiotarus  of  such 
severity  as  to  efface  the  decrees  of  all  our  generals  respecting 
him?  For  he  has  been  complimented  and  distinguished  ever 
since  he  was  of  an  age  to  serve  in  their  camps,  by  all  those  men 
who  had  had  the  conduct  of  our  wars  in  Asia,  and  in  Cappadocia, 
and  in  Pontus,  and  in  Cilicia,  and  in  Syria.  And  what  length  of 
time  will  ever  efface,  what  forgetfulness  will  ever  obliterate  those 
numerous  and  honorable  resolutions  of  the  Senate  respecting 
him,  which  have  been  recorded  in  the  public  writings  and  memo- 
rials of  the  Roman  people? 

Why  need  I  speak  of  his  valor?  why  of  his  greatness  of  mind? 
of  his  wisdom?  of  his  firmness  and  consistency?  qualities  which 
not  only  have  all  wise  and  learned  men  pronounced  to  be  the 
greatest  blessings,  but  which  some  have  even  considered  the 
only  real  ones,  and  have  said  that  virtue  wanted  nothing  more 
than  these  for  the  purpose  of  living  not  only  well,  but  even  hap- 
pily. He,  considering  these  things,  and  reflecting  on  them  day 
and  night,  is  so  far  from  feeling  resentment  against  you  (for  he 
would  not  only  be  ungrateful,  but  even  mad  to  do  so),  that  he 
attributes  the  whole  of  the  tranquillity  and  quiet  of  his  old  age 
which  he  enjoys,  to  your  clemency. 

And  as  these  were  his  sentiments  previously,  I  do  not  doubt 
also  that  after  the  receipt  of  your  letters,  of  which  I  have  read  a 
copy,  which  you  gave  to  this  Blesamius  at  Tarraco  for  Deiotarus, 
his  spirit  became  loftier  still,  and  that  he  ceased  to  feel  any  anx- 


3Ig  CICERO 

iety  whatever.  For  in  them  you  bid  him  entertain  good  hopes, 
and  to  be  of  good  courage — expressions  which  I  know  you  are 
not  in  the  habit  of  using  without  a  meaning;  for  I  recollect  that 
you  wrote  to  me  in  almost  the  same  language,  and  that  when 
you  bade  me  entertain  good  hopes  of  the  future  you  were  not 
deceiving  me. 

I  am  anxious,  indeed,  in  this  cause  of  king  Deiotarus,  \vith 
whom  the  affairs  of  this  republic  have  united  me  in  friendship, 
while  our  mutual  regard  for  one  another  has  connected  us  by 
ties  of  hospitality,  with  whom  long  acquaintance  has  engendered 
intimacy,  and  his  great  services  to  me  and  to  my  army  have 
wrought  in  me  the  greatest  affection  for  him.  But  while  I  am 
anxious  about  him,  I  am  anxious  also  about  many  most  dis- 
tinguished men,  who  have  been  pardoned  by  you,  and  who 
ought  to  be  able  to  consider  their  pardon,  whenever  pronounced, 
as  binding  forever;  and  who  ought  not  to  feel  that  a  doubt  is 
thrown  on  the  permanency  of  your  kindness  to  them,  nor  to  have 
a  perpetual  anxiety  implanted  in  their  minds;  nor,  in  short, 
ought  it  to  be  allowed  to  happen  that  any  one  of  those  men 
should  begin  again  to  feel  apprehension,  who  has  once  been  re- 
leased by  you  from  fear. 

I  ought  not,  O  Caesar,  to  endeavor,  as  is  often  done  by  men  in 
such  danger  as  this,  to  move  your  pity  by  my  language.  There 
is  no  need  of  my  doing  so.  Your  feelings  are  of  their  own  ac- 
cord accustomed  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  suppliant  and  unfor- 
tunate, without  being  elicited  by  the  eloquence  of  anybody. 
Place  before  your  eyes  two  kings,  and  contemplate  with  your 
mind  what  you  cannot  behold  with  your  eyes.  You  will  surely 
yield  to  your  feelings  of  compassion  what  you  refused  to  your 
resentment.  There  are  many  monuments  of  your  clemency,  but 
the  chief,  sure,  are  the  secure  happiness  of  those  men  to  whom  it 
is  you  have  been  the  author  of  safety.  And  if  such  an  action  is 
glorious  in  the  case  of  a  private  individual,  much  more  will  it  be 
celebrated  when  it  is  a  king  who  is  the  object  of  it.  The  title  of 
king  has  always  been  accounted  a  holy  name  in  this  city;  but  the 
names  of  ally  and  king,  when  united  together,  are  then  the  holi- 
est of  all  titles. 

And  these  kings  were  afraid  that  if  you  were  victorious  they 
might  lose  that  name.  But  now  that  they  have  been  allowed  to 
retain  it,  and  have  been  confirmed  in  it  by  you,  I  confidently  trust 


SPEECH   IN   BEHALF   OF   KING   DEIOTARUS       319 

that  they  will  even  transmit  it  to  their  posterity.  Moreover, 
these  ambassadors  whom  you  see  before  you,  Hieras,  and  Blesa- 
mius,  and  Antigonus,  men  with  whom  you  and  all  of  us  have 
long  been  acquainted,  and  also  Dorylaus,  a  man  of  the  same  loy- 
alty and  virtue  as  they,  who  was  lately  sent  as  ambassador  to  you 
in  company  with  Hieras,  devoted  friends  of  the  king,  and  men 
too  who,  as  I  hope,  are  highly  esteemed  by  you,  offer  you  their 
persons  as  hostages  and  pledges  to  secure  the  safety  of  their 
prince.  Ask  Blesamius  whether  he  ever  wrote  anything  to  the 
king  to  the  disparagement  of  your  dignity.  Hieras,  indeed, 
undertakes  the  whole  cause  of  Deiotarus,  and  offers  himself  as 
the  defendant  against  all  these  charges  in  behalf  of,  and  instead 
of  the  king.  He  implores  the  aid  of  your  recollection  in  his 
favor;  a  quality  in  which  you  greatly  excel:  he  declares  that  all 
the  time  that  you  were  in  the  tetrarchy  of  Deiotarus  he  never 
left  your  side.  He  says  that  he  met  you  on  the  frontier,  and 
that  he  attended  you  to  the  borders  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
country;  that  when  you  left  the  bath  he  was  with  you,  and  when 
you  surveyed  all  those  presents  after  supper,  and  when  you  re- 
tired to  rest  in  your  bed-chamber.  And  he  says,  too,  that  he  at- 
tended you  in  the  same  unremitting  manner  all  the  next  day. 

Wherefore,  if  any  one  of  those  things  which  Deiotarus  has 
been  accused  of,  really  was  thought  of,  he  does  not  object  to 
your  thinking  the  crime  his.  I  entreat  you,  O  Caius  Caesar,  to 
consider  that  on  this  day  your  sentence  will  bring  on  those  kings 
either  most  miserable  calamity,  accompanied  with  infinite  dis- 
grace, or  an  unsullied  reputation  attended  with  safety;  and  to 
desire  the  one  of  those  results  would  be  an  act  of  cruelty,  to 
secure  the  other  is  an  action  suitable  to  your  clemency. 


THE    FIRST    ORATION    AGAINST 
MARCUS    ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  First  Philippic 


THE  ARGUMENT 

When  Julius,  or,  as  he  is  usually  called  by  Cicero,  Caius  Caesar  was 
slain  on  the  fifteenth  of  March,  A.U.C.  710,  B.C.  44,  Marcus  Antonius 
was  his  colleague  in  the  consulship;  and  he,  being  afraid  that  the 
conspirators  might  murder  him  too  (and  it  is  said  that  they  had 
debated  among  themselves  whether  they  would  or  no),  concealed 
himself  on  that  day,  and  fortified  his  house;  till  perceiving  that  noth- 
ing was  intended  against  him,  he  ventured  to  appear  in  public  the  day 
following.  Lepidus  was  in  the  suburbs  of  Rome  with  a  regular  army, 
ready  to  depart  for  the  government  of  Spain,  which  had  been  as- 
signed to  him  with  a  part  of  Gaul.  In  the  night,  after  Caesar's  death, 
he  occupied  the  forum  with  his  troops,  and  thought  of  making  him- 
self master  of  the  city,  but  Antonius  dissuaded  him  from  that  idea, 
and  won  him  over  to  his  views  by  giving  his  daughter  in  marriage 
to  Lepidus's  son,  and  by  assisting  him  to  seize  on  the  office  of  Pontifex 
Maximus,  which  was  vacant  by  Caesar's  death. 

To  the  conspirators  he  professed  friendship,  sent  his  son  among 
them  as  a  hostage  of  his  sincerity,  and  so  deluded  them,  that  Brutus 
supped  with  Lepidus,  and  Cassius  with  Antonius.  By  these  means  he 
got  them  to  consent  to  his  passing  a  decree  for  the  confirmation  of 
all  Caesar's  acts,  without  describing  or  naming  them  more  precisely. 
At  last,  on  the  occasion  of  Caesar's  public  funeral,  he  contrived  so 
to  inflame  the  populace  against  the  conspirators,  that  Brutus  and  Cas- 
sius had  some  difficulty  in  defending  their  houses  and  their  lives; 
and  he  gradually  alarmed  them  so  much,  and  worked  so  cunningly 
on  their  fears,  that  they  all  quitted  Rome.  Cicero  also  left  Rome, 
disapproving  greatly  of  the  vacillation  and  want  of  purpose  in  the 
conspirators.  On  the  first  of  June  Antonius  assembled  the  Senate  to 
deliberate  on  the  affairs  of  the  republic,  and  in  the  interval  visited  all 
parts  of  Italy. 

In  the  mean  time  young  Octavius  appeared  on  the  stage;  he  had 
been  left  by  Caesar,  who  was  his  uncle,  the  heir  to  his  name  and 
estate.  He  returned  from  Apollonia,  in  Macedonia,  to  Italy  as  soon 
as  he  heard  of  his  uncle's  death,  and  arrived  at  Naples  on  the  eigh- 
teenth of  April,  where  he  was  introduced  by  Hirtius  and  Pansa  to 
Cicero,  whom  he  promised  to  be  guided  in  all  respects  by  his  direc- 
tions. He  was  now  between  eighteen  and  nineteen  years  of  age. 

He  began  by  the  representation  of  public  spectacles  and  games  in 
honor  of  C?esar's  victories.  In  the  mean  time  Antonius,  in  his  prog- 
ress through  Italy,  was  making  great  use  of  the  decree  confirming 

323 


3*4 


CICERO 


all  Caesar's  acts,  which  he  interpolated  and  forged  in  the  most  shame- 
less manner.  Among  other  things  he  restored  Deiotarus  to  all  his 
dominions,  having  been  bribed  to  do  so  by  a  hundred  millions  of 
sesterces  by  the  king's  agents;  but  Deiotarus  himself,  as  soon  as  he 
heard  of  Caesar's  death,  seized  all  his  dominions  by  force.  He  also 
seized  the  public  treasure  which  Caesar  had  deposited  in  the  temple  of 
Opis,  amounting  to  above  $22,000,000  of  our  money,  and  with  this 
he  won  over  Dolabella,  who  had  seized  the  consulship  on  the  death 
of  Caesar,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  army. 

At  the  end  of  May  Cicero  began  to  return  towards  Rome,  in  order 
to  arrive  there  in  time  for  the  meeting  of  the  Senate  on  the  first  of 
June;  but  many  of  his  friends  dissuaded  him  from  entering  the  city, 
and  at  last  he  determined  not  to  appear  in  the  Senate  on  that  day, 
but  to  make  a  tour  in  Greece;  to  assist  him  in  which,  Dolabella  named 
him  of  his  lieutenants.  Antonius  also  gave  Brutus  and  Cassius  com- 
missions to  buy  corn  in  Asia  and  Sicily  for  the  use  of  the  republic, 
in  order  to  keep  them  out  of  the  city. 

Meantime  Sextus  Pompeius,  who  was  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 
army  in  Spain,  addressed  letters  to  the  consuls  proposing  terms  of 
accommodation,  which  after  some  debate,  and  some  important  modi- 
fications, were  agreed  to,  and  he  quitted  Spain,  and  came  as  far  as 
Marseilles  on  his  road  towards  Rome. 

Cicero,  having  started  for  Greece,  was  forced  to  put  back  by  con- 
trary winds,  and  returned  to  Velia  on  the  seventeenth  of  August, 
where  he  had  a  long  conference  with  Brutus,  who  soon  after  left 
Italy  for  his  province  of  Macedonia,  which  Caesar  had  assigned  him 
before  his  death,  though  Antonius  now  wished  to  compel  him  to 
exchange  it  for  Crete.  After  this  conference  Cicero  returned  to  Rome, 
where  he  was  received  with  unexampled  joy,  immense  multitudes 
thronging  out  to  meet  him,  and  to  escort  him  into  the  city.  He 
arrived  in  Rome  on  the  last  day  of  August.  The  next  day  the  Senate 
met,  to  which  he  was  particularly  summoned  by  Antonius,  but  he 
excused  himself  as  not  having  recovered  from  the  fatigue  of  his 
journey. 

Antonius  was  greatly  offended,  and  in  his  speech  in  the  Senate 
threatened  openly  to  order  Cicero's  house  to  be  pulled  down;  the 
real  reason  of  Cicero's  absenting  himself  from  the  Senate  being,  that 
the  business  of  the  day  was  to  decree  some  new  and  extraordinary 
honors  to  Caesar,  and  to  order  supplications  to  him  as  a  divinity,  which 
Cicero  was  determined  not  to  concur  in,  though  he  knew  it  would  be 
useless  to  oppose  them. 

The  next  day  also  the  Senate  met,  and  Antonius  absented  himself; 
but  Cicero  came  down  and  delivered  the  first  of  that  celebrated  series 
of  fourteen  speeches  made  in  opposition  to  Antonius  and  his  measures, 
and  called  Philippics  from  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  against  Philip, 
to  which  the  Romans  were  in  the  habit  of  comparing  them. 


THE  FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST 
MARCUS  ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  First  Philippic 

BEFORE,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  say  those  things  concern- 
ing the  republic  which  I  think  myself  bound  to  say  at  the 
present  time,  I  will  explain  to  you  briefly  the  cause  of  my 
departure  from,  and  of  my  return  to  the  city.  When  I  hoped 
that  the  republic  was  at  last  recalled  to  a  proper  respect  for  your 
wisdom  and  for  your  authority,  I  thought  that  it  became  me  to 
remain  in  a  sort  of  sentinelship,  which  was  imposed  upon  me  by 
my  position  as  a  senator  and  a  man  of  consular  rank.  Nor  did 
I  depart  anywhere,  nor  did  I  ever  take  my  eyes  off  from  the  re- 
public, from  the  day  on  which  we  were  summoned  to  meet  in  the 
temple  of  Tellus;1  in  which  temple,  I,  as  far  as  was  in  my  power, 
laid  the  foundations  of  peace,  and  renewed  the  ancient  precedent 
set  by  the  Athenians;  I  even  used  the  Greek  word,2  which  that 
city  employed  in  those  times  in  allaying  discords,  and  gave  my 
vote  that  all  recollection  of  the  existing  dissensions  ought  to  be 
effaced  by  everlasting  oblivion. 

The  oration  then  made  by  Marcus  Antonius  was  an  admirable 
one;  his  disposition,  too,  appeared  excellent;  and  lastly,  by  his 
means  and  by  his  sons',  peace  was  ratified  with  the  most  illus- 
trious of  the  citizens;  and  everything  else  was  consistent  with 
this  beginning.  He  invited  the  chief  men  of  the  state  to  those 
deliberations  which  he  held  at  his  own  house  concerning  the 
state  of  the  republic;  he  referred  all  the  most  important  matters 
to  this  order.  Nothing  was  at  that  time  found  among  the 
papers  of  Caius  Caesar  except  what  was  already  well  known  to 
everybody;  and  he  gave  answers  to  every  question  that  was 
asked  of  him  with  the  greatest  consistency.  Were  any  exiles  re- 

1  This  meeting  took  place  on  the  third  day  after  Caesar's  death. 

1   Ml)    filTjaiKOHtll'. 

325 


CICERO 

stored?  He  said  that  one  was,  and  only  one.  Were  any  im- 
munities granted?  He  answered,  None.  He  wished  us  even  to 
adopt  the  proposition  of  Servius  Sulpicius,  that  most  illustrious 
man,  that  no  tablet  purporting  to  contain  any  decree  or  grant  of 
Caesar's  should  be  published  after  the  Ides  of  March  were  ex- 
pired. I  pass  over  many  other  things,  all  excellent — for  I  am 
hastening  to  come  to  a  very  extraordinary  act  of  virtue  of  Mar- 
cus Antonius.  He  utterly  abolished  from  the  constitution  of 
the  republic  the  dictatorship,  which  had  by  this  time  attained  to 
the  authority  of  regal  power.  And  that  measure  was  not  even 
offered  to  us  for  discussion.  He  brought  with  him  a  decree  of 
the  Senate,  ready  drawn  up,  ordering  what  he  chose  to  have 
done :  and  when  it  had  been  read,  we  all  submitted  to  his  author- 
ity in  the  matter  with  the  greatest  eagerness;  and,  by  another 
resolution  of  the  Senate,  we  returned  him  thanks  in  the  most 
honorable  and  complimentary  language. 

A  new  light,  as  it  were,  seemed  to  be  brought  over  us,  now 
that  not  only  the  kingly  power  which  we  had  endured,  but  all 
fear  of  such  power  for  the  future,  was  taken  away  from  us;  and 
a  great  pledge  appeared  to  have  been  given  by  him  to  the  repub- 
lic that  he  did  wish  the  city  to  be  free,  when  he  utterly  abolished 
out  of  the  republic  the  name  of  dictator,  which  had  often  been  a 
legitimate  title,  on  account  of  our  late  recollection  of  a  perpetual 
dictatorship.  A  few  days  afterward  the  Senate  was  delivered 
from  the  danger  of  bloodshed,  and  a  hook3  was  fixed  into  that 
runaway  slave  who  had  usurped  the  name  of  Caius  Marius. 
And  all  these  things  he  did  in  concert  with  his  colleague.  Some 
other  things  that  were  done  were  the  acts  of  Dolabella  alone; 
but  if  his  colleague  had  not  been  absent,  would,  I  believe,  have 
been  done  by  both  of  them  in  concert. 

For  when  enormous  evil  was  insinuating  itself  into  the  repub- 
lic, and  was  gaining  more  strength  day  by  day;  and  when  the 
same  men  were  erecting  a  tomb4  in  the  forum,  who  had  per- 
formed that  irregular  funeral ;  and  when  abandoned  men,  with 
slaves  like  themselves,  were  every  day  threatening  with  more 
and  more  vehemence  all  the  houses  and  temples  of  the  city;  so 
severe  was  the  rigor  of  Dolabella,  not  only  toward  the  audacious 

»  The   hook    was   to   drag   his   carcass  *  This  refers  to  a  pillar  that  was  raised 

along   the   streets  to  throw   it   into   the  in  the  forum   in   honor  of   Cesar,   with 

Tiber.     So  Juvenal  says—  the  inscription   "  To   the   Father  of  his 

bejanus  ducitur  unco  Country." 
Spectandus." — x.  66. 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS        327 

and  wicked  slaves,  but  also  toward  the  profligate  and  unprinci- 
pled freemen,  and  so  prompt  was  his  overthrow  of  that  accursed 
pillar,  that  it  seems  marvellous  to  me  that  the  subsequent  time 
has  been  so  different  from  that  one  day. 

For  behold,  on  the  first  of  June,  on  which  day  they  had  given 
notice  that  we  were  all  to  attend  the  Senate,  everything  was 
changed.  Nothing  was  done  by  the  Senate,  but  many  and  im- 
portant measures  were  transacted  by  the  agency  of  the  people, 
though  that  people  was  both  absent  and  disapproving.  The 
consuls  elect  said  that  they  did  not  dare  to  come  into  the  Senate. 
The  liberators  of  their  country  were  absent  from  that  city  from 
the  neck  of  which  they  had  removed  the  yoke  of  slavery;  though 
the  very  consuls  themselves  professed  to  praise  them  in  their 
public  harangues  and  in  all  their  conversation.  Those  who 
were  called  veterans,  men  of  whose  safety  this  order  had  been 
most  particularly  careful,  were  instigated  not  to  the  preservation 
of  those  things  which  they  had,  but  to  cherish  hopes  of  new 
booty.  And  as  I  preferred  hearing  of  those  things  to  seeing 
them,  and  as  I  had  an  honorary  commission  as  lieutenant,  I  went 
away,  intending  to  be  present  on  the  first  of  January,  which  ap- 
peared likely  to  be  the  first  day  of  assembling  the  Senate. 

I  have  now  explained  to  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  my  design 
in  leaving  the  city.  Now  I  will  briefly  set  before  you,  also,  my 
intention  in  returning,  which  may  perhaps  appear  more  unac- 
countable. As  I  had  avoided  Brundusium,  and  the  ordinary 
route  into  Greece,  not  without  good  reason,  on  the  first  of 
August  I  arrived  at  Syracuse,  because  the  passage  from  that  city 
into  Greece  was  said  to  be  a  good  one.  And  that  city,  with 
which  I  had  so  intimate  a  connection,  could  not,  though  it  was 
very  eager  to  do  so,  detain  me  more  than  one  night.  I  was 
afraid  that  my  sudden  arrival  among  my  friends  might  cause 
some  suspicion  if  I  remained  there  at  all.  But  after  the  winds 
had  driven  me,  on  my  departure  from  Sicily,  to  Leucopetra, 
which  is  a  promontory  of  the  Rhegian  district,  I  went  up  the 
gulf  from  that  point,  with  the  view  of  crossing  over.  And  I  had 
not  advanced  far  before  I  was  driven  back  by  a  foul  wind  to  the 
very  place  which  I  had  just  quitted.  And  as  the  night  was 
stormy,  and  as  I  had  lodged  that  night  in  the  villa  of  Publius 
Valerius,  my  companion  and  intimate  friend,  and  as  I  remained 
all  the  next  day  at  his  house  waiting  for  a  fair  wind,  many  of  the 


328  CICERO 

citizens  of  the  municipality  of  Rhegium  came  to  me.  And  of 
them  there  were  some  who  had  lately  arrived  from  Rome ;  from 
them  I  first  heard  of  the  harangue  of  Marcus  Antonius,  with 
which  I  was  so  much  pleased  that,  after  I  had  read  it,  I  began 
for  the  first  time  to  think  of  returning.  And  long  afterward  the 
edict  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  is  brought  to  me;  which  (perhaps 
because  I  love  those  men,  even  more  for  the  sake  of  the  repub- 
lic than  of  my  own  friendship  for  them)  appeared  to  me,  indeed, 
to  be  full  of  equity.  They  added  besides  (for  it  is  a  very  common 
thing  for  those  who  are  desirous  of  bringing  good  news  to  in- 
vent something  to  make  the  news  which  they  bring  seem  more 
joyful)  that  parties  were  coming  to  an  agreement;  that  the  Sen- 
ate was  to  meet  on  the  first  of  August;  that  Antonius  having  dis- 
carded all  evil  counsellors,  and  having  given  up  the  provinces  of 
Gaul,  was  about  to  return  to  submission  to  the  authority  of  the 
Senate. 

But  on  this  I  was  inflamed  with  such  eagerness  to  return,  that 
no  oars  or  winds  could  be  fast  enough  for  me ;  not  that  I  thought 
that  I  should  not  arrive  in  time,  but  lest  I  should  be  later  than 
I  wished  in  congratulating  the  republic;  and  I  quickly  arrived 
at  Velia,  where  I  saw  Brutus;  how  grieved  I  was,  I  cannot  ex- 
press. For  it  seemed  to  be  a  discreditable  thing  for  me  myself, 
that  I  should  venture  to  return  into  that  city  from  which  Brutus 
was  departing,  and  that  I  should  be  willing  to  live  safely  in  a 
place  where  he  could  not.  But  he  himself  was  not  agitated  in 
the  same  manner  that  I  was;  for,  being  elevated  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  great  and  glorious  exploit,  he  had  no  com- 
plaints to  make  of  what  had  befallen  him,  though  he  lamented 
your  fate  exceedingly.  And  it  was  from  him  that  I  first  heard 
what  had  been  the  language  of  Lucius  Piso,  in  the  Senate  of 
August;  who  although  he  was  but  little  assisted  (for  that  I 
heard  from  Brutus  himself)  by  those  who  ought  to  have  sec- 
onded him,  still  according  to  the  testimony  of  Brutus  (and  what 
evidence  can  be  more  trustworthy?),  and  to  the  avowal  of  every- 
one whom  I  saw  afterward,  appeared  to  me  to  have  gained  great 
credit.  I  hastened  hither,  therefore,  in  order  that  as  those  who 
were  present  had  not  seconded  him,  I  might  do  so;  not  with  the 
hope  of  doing  any  good,  for  I  neither  hoped  for  that,  nor  did  I 
well  see  how  it  was  possible;  but  in  order  that  if  anything  hap- 
pened to  me  (and  many  things  appeared  to  be  threatening  me 


FIRST   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS        329 

out  of  the  regular  course  of  nature,  and  even  of  destiny),  I  might 
still  leave  my  speech  on  this  day  as  a  witness  to  the  republic  of 
my  everlasting  attachment  to  its  interests. 

Since  then,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  trust  that  the  reason  of  my 
adopting  each  determination  appears  praiseworthy  to  you,  be- 
fore I  begin  to  speak  of  the  republic,  I  will  make  a  brief  com- 
plaint of  the  injury  which  Marcus  Antonius  did  me  yesterday ; 
to  whom  I  am  friendly,  and  I  have  at  all  times  admitted  having 
received  some  services  from  him  which  make  it  my  duty  to 
be  so. 

What  reason  had  he  then  for  endeavoring,  with  such  bitter 
hostility,  to  force  me  into  the  Senate  yesterday?  Was  I  the  only 
person  who  was  absent?  Have  you  not  repeatedly  had  thinner 
houses  than  yesterday?  Or  was  a  matter  of  such  importance 
under  discussion,  that  it  was  desirable  for  even  sick  men  to  be 
brought  down?  Hannibal,  I  suppose,  was  at  the  gates,  or  there 
was  to  be  a  debate  about  peace  with  Pyrrhus;  on  which  occasion 
it  is  related  that  even  the  great  Appius,  old  and  blind  as  he  was, 
was  brought  down  to  the  Senate-house.  There  was  a  motion 
being  made  about  some  supplications;  a  kind  of  measure  when 
Senators  are  not  usually  wanting;  for  they  are  under  the  com- 
pulsion, not  of  pledges,  but  of  the  influence  of  those  men  whose 
honor  is  being  complimented;  and  the  case  is  the  same  when  the 
motion  has  reference  to  a  triumph.  The  consuls  are  so  free 
from  anxiety  at  these  times,  that  it  is  almost  entirely  free  for  a 
senator  to  absent  himself  if  he  pleases.  And  as  the  general  cus- 
tom of  our  body  was  well  known  to  me,  and  as  I  was  hardly  re- 
covered from  the  fatigue  of  my  journey,  and  was  vexed  with 
myself,  I  sent  a  man  to  him,  out  of  regard  for  my  friendship  to 
him,  to  tell  him  that  I  should  not  be  there. .  But  he,  in  the  hear- 
ing of  you  all,  declared  that  he  would  come  with  masons  to  my 
house;  this  was  said  with  too  much  passion  and  very  intemper- 
ately.  For,  for  what  crime  is  there  such  a  heavy  punishment 
appointed  as  that,  that  anyone  should  venture  to  say  in  this  as- 
sembly that  he,  with  the  assistance  of  a  lot  of  common  operatives, 
would  pull  down  a  house  which  had  been  built  at  the  public  ex- 
pense in  accordance  with  a  vote  of  the  Senate?  And  who  ever 
employed  such  compulsion  as  the  threat  of  such  an  injury  as 
that  to  a  senator?  or  what  severer  punishment  has  ever  been  im- 
posed for  absence  than  the  forfeiture  of  a  pledge,  or  a  fine?  But 


33o  CICERO 

if  he  had  known  what  opinion  I  should  have  delivered  on  the 
subject,  he  would  have  remitted  somewhat  of  the  rigor  of  his 
compulsion. 

Do  you  think,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  I  would  have  voted 
for  the  resolution  which  you  adopted  against  your  own  wills,  of 
mingling  funeral  obsequies  with  supplications?  of  introducing 
inexplicable  impiety  into  the  republic?  of  decreeing  supplica- 
tions in  honor  of  a  dead  man?  I  say  nothing  about  who  the 
man  was.  Even  had  he  been  that  great  Lucius  Brutus  who  him- 
self also  delivered  the  republic  from  kingly  power,  and  who  has 
produced  posterity  nearly  five  hundred  years  after  himself  of 
similar  virtue,  and  equal  to  similar  achievements — even  then  I 
could  not  have  been  induced  to  join  any  dead  man  in  a  religious 
observance  paid  to  the  immortal  gods;  so  that  a  supplication 
should  be  addressed  by  public  authority  to  a  man  who  has  no- 
where a  sepulchre  at  which  funeral  obsequies  may  be  celebrated. 

I,  O  conscript  fathers,  should  have  delivered  my  opinion, 
which  I  could  easily  have  defended  against  the  Roman  people, 
if  any  heavy  misfortune  had  happened  to  the  republic,  such  as 
war,  or  pestilence,  or  famine;  some  of  which,  indeed,  do  exist 
already,  and  I  have  my  fears  lest  others  are  impending.  But  I 
pray  that  the  immortal  gods  may  pardon  this  act,  both  to  the 
Roman  people,  which  does  not  approve  of  it,  and  to  this  order, 
which  voted  it  with  great  unwillingness.  What?  may  I  not 
speak  of  the  other  misfortunes  of  the  republic?  At  all  events  it 
is  in  my  power,  and  it  always  will  be  in  my  power,  to  uphold  my 
own  dignity  and  to  despise  death.  Let  me  have  only  the  power 
to  come  into  this  house,  and  I  will  never  shrink  from  the  danger 
of  declaring  my  opinion ! 

And,  O  conscript  fathers,  would  that  I  had  been  able  to  be 
present  on  the  first  of  August;  not  that  I  should  have  been  able 
to  do  any  good,  but  to  prevent  anyone  saying  that  not  one  sena- 
tor of  consular  rank  (as  was  the  case  then)  was  found  worthy  of 
that  honor  and  worthy  of  the  republic.  And  this  circumstance 
indeed  gives  me  great  pain,  that  men  who  have  enjoyed  the  most 
honorable  distinctions  which  the  Roman  people  can  confer,  did 
not  second  Lucius  Piso,  the  proposer  of  an  excellent  opinion.  Is 
it  for  this  that  the  Roman  people  made  us  consuls,  that,  being 
placed  on  the  loftiest  and  most  honorable  step  of  dignity,  we 
should  consider  the  republic  of  no  importance?  Not  only  did 


FIRST  ORATION   AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS        331 

no  single  man  of  consular  dignity  indicate  his  agreement  with 
Lucius  Piso  by  his  voice,  but  they  did  not  venture  even  to  look 
as  if  they  agreed  with  him.  What,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  hor- 
rible, is  the  meaning  of  this  voluntary  slavery?  Some  submis- 
sion may  have  been  unavoidable:  nor  do  I  require  this  from 
every  one  of  the  men  who  deliver  their  opinions  from  the  con- 
sular bench;  the  case  of  those  men  whose  silence  I  pardon  is 
different  from  that  of  those  whose  expression  of  their  sentiments 
I  require;  and  I  do  grieve  that  those  men  have  fallen  under  the 
suspicion  of  the  Roman  people,  not  only  as  being  afraid — which 
of  itself  would  be  shameful  enough — but  as  having  different  pri- 
vate causes  for  being  wanting  to  their  proper  dignity. 

Wherefore,  in  the  first  place,  I  both  feel  and  acknowledge 
great  obligations  to  Lucius  Piso,  who  considered  not  what  he 
was  able  to  effect  in  the  republic,  but  what  it  was  his  own  duty  to 
do ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  I  entreat  of  you,  O  conscript  fathers, 
even  if  you  have  not  quite  the  courage  to  agree  with  my  speech 
and  to  adopt  my  advice,  at  all  events  to  listen  to  me  with  kind- 
ness as  you  have  always  hitherto  done. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  I  declare  my  opinion  that  the  acts  of 
Caesar  ought  to  be  maintained :  not  that  I  approve  of  them ;  (for 
who  indeed  can  do  that?)  but  because  I  think  that  we  ought 
above  all  things  to  have  regard  to  peace  and  tranquillity.  I 
wish  that  Antonius  himself  were  present,  provided  he  had  no 
advocates  with  him.  But  I  suppose  he  may  be  allowed  to  feel 
unwell,  a  privilege  which  he  refused  to  allow  me  yesterday.  He 
would  then  explain  to  me,  or  rather  to  you,  O  conscript  fathers, 
to  what  extent  he  himself  defended  the  acts  of  Caesar.  Are  all 
the  acts  of  Caesar  which  may  exist  in  the  bits  of  note-books,  and 
memoranda,  and  loose  papers,  produced  on  his  single  authority, 
and  indeed  not  even  produced,  but  only  recited,  to  be  ratified? 
And  shall  the  acts  which  he  caused  to  be  engraved  on  brass,  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  edicts  and  laws  passed  by  the  people 
were  valid  forever,  be  considered  as  of  no  power?  I  think,  in- 
deed, that  there  is  nothing  so  well  entitled  to  be  called  the  acts  of 
Caesar  as  Caesar's  laws.  Suppose  he  gave  anyone  a  promise,  is 
that  to  be  ratified,  even  if  it  were  a  promise  that  he  himself  was 
unable  to  perform?  As,  in  fact,  he  has  failed  to  perform  many 
promises  made  to  many  people.  And  a  great  many  more  of 
those  promises  have  been  found  since  his  death,  than  the  num- 


332  CICERO 

her  of  all  the  services  which  he  conferred  on  and  did  to  people 
during  all  the  years  that  he  was  alive  would  amount  to. 

But  all  those  things  I  do  not  change,  I  do  not  meddle  with. 
Nay,  I  defend  all  his  good  acts  with  the  greatest  earnestness. 
Would  that  the  money  remained  in  the  temple  of  Opis!  Blood- 
stained, indeed,  it  may  be,  but  still  needful  at  these  times,  since 
it  is  not  restored  to  those  to  whom  it  really  belongs.  Let  that, 
however,  be  squandered  too,  if  it  is  so  written  in  his  acts.  Is 
there  anything  whatever  that  can  be  called  so  peculiarly  the  act 
of  that  man  who,  while  clad  in  the  robe  of  peace,  was  yet  invested 
with  both  civil  and  military  command  in  the  republic,  as  a  law 
of  his?  Ask  for  the  acts  of  Gracchus,  the  Sempronian  laws  will 
be  brought  forward ;  ask  for  those  of  Sylla,  you  will  have  the 
Cornelian  laws.  What  more?  In  what  acts  did  the  third  con- 
sulship of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  consist?  Why,  in  his  laws.  And 
if  you  could  ask  Caesar  himself  what  he  had  done  in  the  city  and 
in  the  garb  of  peace,  he  would  reply  that  he  had  passed  many 
excellent  laws;  but  his  memoranda  he  would  either  alter  or  not 
produce  at  all;  or,  if  he  did  produce  them,  he  would  not  class 
them  among  his  acts.  But,  however,  I  allow  even  these  things 
to  pass  for  acts;  at  some  things  I  am  content  to  wink;  but  I 
thing  it  intolerable  that  the  acts  of  Caesar  in  the  most  important 
instances,  that  is  to  say,  in  his  laws,  are  to  be  annulled  for  their 
sake. 

What  law  was  ever  better,  more  advantageous,  more  frequent- 
ly demanded  in  the  best  ages  of  the  republic,  than  the  one  which 
forbade  the  praetorian  provinces  to  be  retained  more  than  a  year, 
and  the  consular  provinces  more  than  two?  If  this  law  be  abro- 
gated, do  you  think  that  the  acts  of  Caesar  are  maintained? 
What?  Are  not  all  the  laws  of  Caesar  respecting  judicial  pro- 
ceedings abrogated  by  the  law  which  has  been  proposed  concern- 
ing the  third  decury?  And  are  you  the  defenders  of  the  acts  of 
Caesar  who  overturn  his  laws?  Unless,  indeed,  anything  which, 
for  the  purpose  of  recollecting  it,  he  entered  in  a  note-book,  is  to 
be  counted  among  his  acts,  and  defended,  however  unjust  or  use- 
less it  may  be;  and  that  which  he  proposed  to  the  people  in  the 
comitia  centuriata  and  carried,  is  not  to  be  accounted  one  of  the 
acts  of  Caesar.  But  what  is  that  third  decury?  The  decury  of 
centurions,  says  he.  What?  Was  not  the  judicature  open  to 
that  order  by  the  Julian  law,  and  even  before  that  by  the  Pom- 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONlUS        333 

peian  and  Aurelian  laws?  The  income  of  the  men,  says  he,  was 
exactly  defined.  Certainly,  not  only  in  the  case  of  a  centurion, 
but  in  the  case,  too,  of  a  Roman  knight.  Therefore,  men  of  the 
highest  honor  and  of  the  greatest  bravery,  who  have  acted  as 
centurions,  are  and  have  been  judges.  I  am  not  asking  about 
those  men,  says  he.  Whoever  has  acted  as  centurion,  let  him 
be  a  judge.  But  if  you  were  to  propose  a  law,  that  whoever 
had  served  in  the  cavalry,  which  is  a  higher  post,  should  be  a 
judge,  you  would  not  be  able  to  induce  anyone  to  approve  of 
that;  for  a  man's  fortune  and  worth  ought  to  be  regarded  in  a 
judge.  I  am  not  asking  about  those  points,  says  he;  I  am 
going  to  add  as  judges,  common  soldiers  of  the  legion  of  Alau- 
dae; 5  for  our  friends  say,  that  that  is  the  only  measure  by  which 
they  can  be  saved.  Oh,  what  an  insulting  compliment  it  is  to 
those  men  whom  you  summon  to  act  as  judges  though  they 
never  expected  it!  For  the  effect  of  the  law  is,  to  make  those 
men  judges  in  the  third  decury  who  do  not  dare  to  judge  with 
freedom.  And  in  that  how  great,  O  ye  immortal  gods!  is  the 
error  of  those  men  who  have  desired  that  law.  For  the  meaner 
the  condition  of  each  judge  is,  the  greater  will  be  the  severity  of 
judgment  with  which  he  will  seek  to  efface  the  idea  of  his  mean- 
ness; and  he  will  strive  rather  to  appear  worthy  of  being  classed 
in  the  honorable  decuries,  than  to  have  deservedly  ranked  in  a 
disreputable  one. 

Another  law  was  proposed,  that  men  who  had  been  con- 
demned of  violence  and  treason  may  appeal  to  the  public  if  they 
please.  Is  this  now  a  law,  or  rather  an  abrogation  of  all  laws? 
For  who  is  there  at  this  day  to  whom  it  is  an  object  that  that  law 
should  stand?  No  one  is  accused  under  those  laws;  there  is  no 
one  whom  we  think  likely  to  be  so  accused.  For  measures 
which  have  been  carried  by  force  of  arms  will  certainly  never  be 
impeached  in  a  court  of  justice.  But  the  measure  is  a  popular 
one.  I  wish,  indeed,  that  you  were  willing  to  promote  any 
popular  measure;  for,  at  present,  all  the  citizens  agree  with  one 
mind  and  one  voice  in  their  view  of  its  bearing  on  the  safety  of 
the  republic. 

What  is  the  meaning,  then,  of  the  eagerness  to  pass  the  law 
which  brings  with  it  the  greatest  possible  infamy,  and  no  popu- 
larity at  all?  For  what  can  be  more  discreditable  than  for  a 

•  This  was  the  name  of  a  legion  raised        ably,  from  the  ornament  worn  on  their 
by  Caesar  in  Gaul,  and  called  so,  prob-        helmets. 


334 


CICERO 


man  who  has  committed  treason  against  the  Roman  people  by 
acts  of  violence,  after  he  has  been  condemned  by  a  legal  decision, 
to  be  able  to  return  to  that  very  course  of  violence,  on  account  of 
which  he  has  been  condemned?  But  why  do  I  argue  any  more 
about  this  law?  as  if  the  object  aimed  at  were  to  enable  anyone 
to  appeal.  The  object  is,  the  inevitable  consequence  must  be, 
that  no  one  can  ever  be  prosecuted  under  those  laws.  For  what 
prosecutor  will  be  found  insane  enough  to  be  willing,  after  the 
defendant  has  been  condemned,  to  expose  himself  to  the  fury  of 
a  hired  mob?  or  what  judge  will  be  bold  enough  to  venture 
to  condemn  a  criminal,  knowing  that  he  will  immediately  be 
dragged  before  a  gang  of  hireling  operatives?  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, a  right  of  appeal  that  is  given  by  that  law,  but  two  most 
salutary  laws  and  modes  of  judicial  investigation  that  are  abol- 
ished. And  what  is  this  but  exhorting  young  men  to  be  turbu- 
lent, seditious,  mischievous  citizens? 

To  what  extent  of  mischief  will  it  not  be  possible  to  instigate 
the  frenzy  of  the  tribunes,  now  that  these  two  rights  of  impeach- 
ment for  violence  and  for  treason  are  annulled?  What  more? 
Is  not  this  a  substitution  of  a  new  law  for  the  laws  of  Caesar, 
which  enact  that  every  man  who  has  been  convicted  of  violence, 
and  also  every  man  who  has  been  convicted  of  treason,  shall  be 
interdicted  from  fire  and  water?  And,  when  those  men  have  a 
right  of  appeal  given  them,  are  not  the  acts  of  Caesar  rescinded? 
And  those  acts,  O  conscript  fathers,  I,  who  never  approved  of 
them,  have  still  thought  it  advisable  to  maintain  for  the  sake  of 
concord;  so  that  I  not  only  did  not  think  that  the  laws  which 
Caesar  had  passed  in  his  lifetime  ought  to  be  repealed,  but  I  did 
not  approve  of  meddling  with  those  even  which  since  the  death 
of  Caesar  you  have  seen  produced  and  published. 

Men  have  been  recalled  from  banishment  by  a  dead  man ;  the 
freedom  of  the  city  has  been  conferred,  not  only  on  individuals, 
but  on  entire  nations  and  provinces  by  a  dead  man ;  our  reve- 
nues have  been  diminished  by  the  granting  of  countless  exemp- 
tions by  a  dead  man.  Therefore,  do  we  defend  these  measures 
which  have  been  brought  from  his  house  on  the  authority  of  a 
single,  but,  I  admit,  a  very  excellent  individual ;  and  as  for  the 
laws  which  he,  in  your  presence,  read,  and  declared,  and  passed 
— in  the  passing  of  which  he  gloried,  and  on  which  he  believed 
that  the  safety  of  the  republic  depended,  especially  those  con- 


FIRST  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS        335 

earning  provinces  and  concerning  judicial  proceedings — can  we, 
I  say,  we  who  defend  the  acts  of  Caesar,  think  that  those  laws  de- 
serve to  be  upset? 

And  yet,  concerning  those  laws  which  were  proposed,  we 
have,  at  all  events,  the  power  of  complaining;  but  concerning 
those  which  are  actually  passed  we  have  not  even  had  that  privi- 
lege. For  they,  without  any  proposal  of  them  to  the  people, 
were  passed  before  they  were  framed.  Men  ask,  what  is  the 
reason  why  I,  or  why  any  one  of  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  should 
be  afraid  of  bad  laws  while  we  have  virtuous  tribunes  of  the 
people?  We  have  men  ready  to  interpose  their  veto;  ready  to 
defend  the  republic  with  the  sanctions  of  religion.  We  ought  to 
be  strangers  to  fear.  What  do  you  mean  by  interposing  the 
veto?  says  he;  what  are  all  these  sanctions  of  religion  which  you 
are  talking  about?  Those,  forsooth,  on  which  the  safety  of  the 
republic  depends.  We  are  neglecting  those  things,  and  think- 
ing them  too  old-fashioned  and  foolish.  The  forum  will  be  sur- 
rounded, every  entrance  of  it  will  be  blocked  up;  armed  men  will 
be  placed  in  garrison,  as  it  were,  at  many  points.  What  then? 
Whatever  is  accomplished  by  those  means  will  be  law.  And 
you  will  order,  I  suppose,  all  those  regularly  passed  decrees  to  be 
engraved  on  brazen  tablets.  "  The  consuls  consulted  the  people 
in  regular  form,"  (Is  this  the  way  of  consulting  the  people  that 
we  have  received  from  our  ancestors?)  "  and  the  people  voted  it 
with  due  regularity."  What  people?  that  which  was  excluded 
from  the  forum?  Under  what  law  did  they  do  so?  under  that 
which  has  been  wholly  abrogated  by  violence  and  arms?  But  I 
am  saying  all  this  with  reference  to  the  future;  because  it  is  the 
part  of  a  friend  to  point  out  evils  which  may  be  avoided :  and  if 
they  never  ensue,  that  will  be  the  best  refutation  of  my  speech. 
I  am  speaking  of  laws  which  have  been  proposed;  concerning 
which  you  have  still  full  power  to  decide  either  way.  I  am 
pointing  out  the  defects;  away  with  them!  I  am  denouncing 
violence  and  arms;  away  with  them  too! 

You  and  your  colleague,  O  Dolabella,  ought  not,  indeed,  to 
be  angry  with  me  for  speaking  in  defence  of  the  republic.  Al- 
though I  do  not  think  that  you  yourself  will  be;  I  know  your 
willingness  to  listen  to  reason.  They  say  that  your  colleague,  in 
this  fortune  of  his,  which  he  himself  thinks  so  good,  but  which 
would  seem  to  me  more  favorable  if  (not  to  use  any  harsh  Ian- 


336  CICERO 

guage)  he  were  to  imitate  the  example  set  him  by  the  consulship 
of  his  grandfathers  and  of  his  uncle — they  say  that  he  has  been 
exceedingly  offended.  And  I  see  what  a  formidable  thing  it  is 
to  have  the  same  man  angry  with  me  and  also  armed;  espe- 
cially at  a  time  when  men  can  use  their  swords  with  such  im- 
punity. But  I  will  propose  a  condition  which  I  myself  think 
reasonable,  and  which  I  do  not  imagine  Marcus  Antonius  will 
reject.  If  I  have  said  anything  insulting  against  his  way  of  life 
or  against  his  morals,  I  will  not  object  to  his  being  my  bitterest 
enemy.  But  if  I  have  maintained  the  same  habits  that  I  have 
already  adopted  in  the  republic — that  is,  if  I  have  spoken  my 
opinions  concerning  the  affairs  of  the  republic  with  freedom — in 
the  first  place,  I  beg  that  he  will  not  be  angry  with  me  for  that; 
but,  in  the  next  place,  if  I  cannot  obtain  my  first  request,  I  beg 
at  least  that  he  will  show  his  anger  only  as  he  legitimately  may 
show  it  to  a  fellow-citizen. 

Let  him  employ  arms,  if  it  is  necessary,  as  he  says  it  is,  for  his 
own  defence:  only  let  not  those  arms  injure  those  men  who  have 
declared  their  honest  sentiments  in  the  affairs  of  the  republic. 
Now,  what  can  be  more  reasonable  than  this  demand?  But  if,  as 
has  been  said  to  me  by  some  of  his  intimate  friends,  every  speech 
which  is  at  all  contrary  to  his  inclination  is  violently  offensive  to 
him,  even  if  there  be  no  insult  in  it  whatever;  then  we  will  bear 
with  the  natural  disposition  of  our  friend.  But  those  men,  at 
the  same  time,  say  to  me,  "  You  will  not  have  the  same  license 
granted  to  you  who  are  the  adversary  of  Caesar  as  might  be 
claimed  by  Piso  his  father-in-law."  And  then  they  warn  me  of 
something  which  I  must  guard  against;  and  certainly,  the  ex- 
cuse which  sickness  supplies  me  with,  for  not  coming  to  the 
Senate,  will  not  be  a  more  valid  one  than  that  which  is  furnished 
by  death. 

But,  in  the  name  of  the  immortal  gods!  for  while  I  look  upon 
you,  O  Dolabella,  who  are  most  dear  to  me,  it  is  impossible  for 
me  to  keep  silence  respecting  the  error  into  which  you  are  both 
falling;  for  I  believe  that  you,  being  both  men  of  high  birth,  en- 
tertaining lofty  views,  have  been  eager  to  acquire,  not  money,  as 
some  too  credulous  people  suspect,  a  thing  which  has  at  all 
times  been  scorned  by  every  honorable  and  illustrious  man,  nor 
power  procured  by  violence  and  authority  such  as  never  ought 
to  be  endured  by  the  Roman  people,  but  the  affection  of  your 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS        337 

fellow-citizens,  and  glory.  But  glory  is  praise  for  deeds  which 
have  been  done,  and  the  fame  earned  by  great  services  to  the  re- 
public; which  is  approved  of  by  the  testimony  borne  in  its  favor, 
not  only  by  every  virtuous  man,  but  also  by  the  multitude.  I 
would  tell  you,  O  Dolabella,  what  the  fruit  of  good  actions  is,  if 
I  did  not  see  that  you  have  already  learned  it  by  experience  be- 
yond all  other  men. 

What  day  can  you  recollect  in  your  whole  life,  as  ever  having 
beamed  on  you  with  a  more  joyful  light  than  the  one  on  which, 
having  purified  the  forum,  having  routed  the  throng  of  wicked 
men,  having  inflicted  due  punishment  on  the  ringleaders  in 
wickedness,  and  having  delivered  the  city  from  conflagration 
and  from  fear  of  massacre,  you  returned  to  your  house?  What 
order  of  society,  what  class  of  people,  what  rank  of  nobles  even 
was  there  who  did  not  then  show  their  zeal  in  praising  and  con- 
gratulating you?  Even  I,  too,  because  men  thought  that  you 
had  been  acting  by  my  advice  in  those  transactions,  received  the 
thanks  and  congratulations  of  good  men  in  your  name.  Re- 
member, I  pray  you,  O  Dolabella,  the  unanimity  displayed  on 
that  day  in  the  theatre,  when  everyone,  forgetful  of  the  causes 
on  account  of  which  they  had  been  previously  offended  with  you, 
showed  that  in  consequence  of  your  recent  service  they  had 
banished  all  recollection  of  their  former  indignation.  Could 
you,  O  Delabella  (it  is  with  great  concern  that  I  speak) — could 
you,  I  say,  forfeit  this  dignity  with  equanimity? 

And  you,  O  Marcus  Antonius  (I  address  myself  to  you, 
though  in  your  absence),  do  you  not  prefer  that  day  on  which 
the  Senate  was  assembled  in  the  temple  of  Tellus,  to  all  those 
months  during  which  some  who  differ  greatly  in  opinion  from 
me  think  that  you  have  been  happy?  What  a  noble  speech  was 
that  of  yours  about  unanimity !  From  what  apprehensions  were 
the  veterans,  and  from  what  anxiety  was  the  whole  state  relieved 
by  you  on  that  occasion!  when,  having  laid  aside  your  enmity 
against  him,  you  on  that  day  first  consented  that  your  present 
colleague  should  be  your  colleague,  forgetting  that  the  auspices 
had  been  announced  by  yourself  as  augur  of  the  Roman  people; 
and  when  your  little  son  was  sent  by  you  to  the  Capitol  to  be  a 
hostage  for  peace.  On  what  day  was  the  Senate  ever  more  joy- 
ful than  on  that  day?  or  when  was  the  Roman  people  more  de- 
lighted? which  had  never  met  in  greater  numbers  in  any  assem- 


338  CICERO 

bly  whatever.  Then,  at  last,  we  did  appear  to  have  been  really 
delivered  by  brave  men,  because,  as  they  had  willed  it  to  be, 
peace  was  following  liberty.  On  the  next  day,  on  the  day  after 
that,  on  the  third  day,  and  on  all  the  following  days,  you  went 
on  without  intermission,  giving  every  day,  as  it  were,  some  fresh 
present  to  the  republic;  but  the  greatest  of  all  presents  was  that, 
when  you  abolished  the  name  of  the  dictatorship.  This  was  in 
effect  branding  the  name  of  the  dead  Caesar  with  everlasting 
ignominy,  and  it  was  your  doing — yours,  I  say.  For  as,  on  ac- 
count of  the  wickedness  of  one  Marcus  Manlius,  by  a  resolution 
of  the  Manlian  family  it  is  unlawful  that  any  patrician  should  be 
called  Manlius,  so  you,  on  account  of  the  hatred  excited  by  one 
dictator,  have  utterly  abolished  the  name  of  dictator. 

When  you  had  done  these  mighty  exploits  for  the  safety  of 
the  republic,  did  you  repent  of  your  fortune,  or  of  the  dignity 
and  renown  and  glory  which  you  had  acquired?  Whence  then 
is  this  sudden  change?  I  cannot  be  induced  to  suspect  that 
you  have  been  caught  by  the  desire  of  acquiring  money;  every 
one  may  say  what  he  pleases,  but  we  are  not  bound  to  believe 
such  a  thing;  for  I  never  saw  anything  sordid  or  anything  mean 
in  you.  Although  a  man's  intimate  friends  do  sometimes  cor- 
rupt his  natural  disposition,  still  I  know  your  firmness;  and  I 
only  wish  that,  as  you  avoid  that  fault,  you  had  been  able  also  to 
escape  all  suspicion  of  it. 

What  I  am  more  afraid  of  is  lest,  being  ignorant  of  the  true 
path  to  glory,  you  should  think  it  glorious  for  you  to  have  more 
power  by  yourself  than  all  the  rest  of  the  people  put  together, 
and  lest  you  should  prefer  being  feared  by  your  fellow-citizens 
to  being  loved  by  them.  And  if  you  do  think  so,  you  are  ignor- 
ant of  the  road  to  glory.  For  a  citizen  to  be  dear  to  his  fellow- 
citizens,  to  deserve  well  of  the  republic,  to  be  praised,  to  be  re- 
spected, to  be  loved,  is  glorious ;  but  to  be  feared,  and  to  be  an 
object  of  hatred,  is  odious,  detestable;  and,  moreover,  pregnant 
with  weakness  and  decay.  And  we  see  that,  even  in  the  play, 
the  very  man  who  said, 

"  What  care  I  though  all  men  should  hate  my  name, 
So  long  as  fear  accompanies  their  hate?  " 

found  that  it  was  a  mischievous  principle  to  act  upon. 

I  wish,  O  Antonius,  that  you  could  recollect  your  grandfather, 


FIRST  ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS 


339 


of  whom,  however,  you  have  repeatedly  heard  me  speak.  Do 
you  think  that  he  would  have  been  willing  to  deserve  even  im- 
mortality, at  the  price  of  being  feared  in  consequence  of  his 
licentious  use  of  arms?  What  he  considered  life,  what  he  con- 
sidered prosperity,  was  the  being  equal  to  the  rest  of  the  citizens 
in  freedom,  and  chief  of  them  all  in  worth.  Therefore,  to  say 
no  more  of  the  prosperity  of  your  grandfather,  I  should  prefer 
that  most  bitter  day  of  his  death  to  the  domination  of  Lucius 
Cinna,  by  whom  he  was  most  barbarously  slain. 

But  why  should  I  seek  to  make  an  impression  on  you  by  my 
speech?  For,  if  the  end  of  Caius  Caesar  cannot  influence  you 
to  prefer  being  loved  to  being  feared,  no  speech  of  anyone  will 
do  any  good  or  have  any  influence  with  you;  and  those  who 
think  him  happy  are  themselves  miserable.  No  one  is  happy 
who  lives  on  such  terms  that  he  may  be  put  to  death  not  merely 
with  impunity,  but  even  to  the  great  glory  of  his  slayer.  Where- 
fore, change  your  mind,  I  entreat  you,  and  look  back  upon  your 
ancestors,  and  govern  the  republic  in  such  a  way  that  your  fel- 
low-citizens may  rejoice  that  you  were  born;  without  which  no 
one  can  be  happy  nor  illustrious. 

And,  indeed,  you  have  both  of  you  had  many  judgments  de- 
livered respecting  you  by  the  Roman  people,  by  which  I  am 
greatly  concerned  that  you  are  not  sufficiently  influenced.  For 
what  was  the  meaning  of  the  shouts  of  the  innumerable  crowd  of 
citizens  collected  at  the  gladiatorial  games?  or  of  the  verses 
made  by  the  people?  or  of  the  extraordinary  applause  at  the 
sight  of  the  statue  of  Pompeius?  and  at  that  sight  of  the  two 
tribunes  of  the  people  who  are  opposed  to  you?  Are  these 
things  a  feeble  indication  of  the  incredible  unanimity  of  the  en- 
tire Roman  people?  What  more?  Did  the  applause  at  the 
games  of  Apollo,  or,  I  should  rather  say,  testimony  and  judg- 
ment there  given  by  the  Roman  people,  appear  to  you  of  small 
importance?  Oh,  happy  are  those  men  who,  though  they 
themselves  were  unable  to  be  present  on  account  of  the  violence 
of  arms,  still  were  present  in  spirit,  and  had  a  place  in  the  breasts 
and  hearts  of  the  Roman  people.  Unless,  perhaps,  you  think 
that  it  was  Accius  who  was  applauded  on  that  occasion,  and  who 
bore  off  the  palm  sixty  years  after  his  first  appearance,  and  not 
Brutus,  who  was  absent  from  the  games  which  he  himself  was 
exhibiting,  while  at  that  most  splendid  spectacle  the  Roman 


34o  CICERO 

people  showed  their  zeal  in  his  favor  though  he  was  absent,  and 
soothed  their  own  regret  for  their  deliverer  by  uninterrupted 
applause  and  clamor. 

I  myself,  indeed,  am  a  man  who  have  at  all  times  despised  that 
applause  which  is  bestowed  by  the  vulgar  crowd,  but  at  the  same 
time,  when  it  is  bestowed  by  those  of  the  highest,  and  of  the  mid- 
dle, and  of  the  lowest  rank,  and,  in  short,  by  all  ranks  together, 
and  when  those  men  who  were  previously  accustomed  to  aim  at 
nothing  but  the  favor  of  the  people  keep  aloof,  I  then  think  that, 
not  mere  applause,  but  a  deliberate  verdict.  If  this  appears  to 
you  unimportant,  which  is  in  reality  most  significant,  do  you 
also  despise  the  fact  of  which  you  have  had  experience — namely, 
that  the  life  of  Aulus  Hirtius  is  so  dear  to  the  Roman  people? 
For  it  was  sufficient  for  him  to  be  esteemed  by  the  Roman  people 
as  he  is;  to  be  popular' among  his  friends,  in  which  respect  he 
surpasses  everybody;  to  be  beloved  by  his  own  kinsmen,  who  do 
love  him  beyond  measure;  but  in  whose  case  before  do  we  ever 
recollect  such  anxiety  and  such  fear  being  manifested?  Cer- 
tainly in  no  one's. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  do?  In  the  name  of  the  immortal 
gods,  can  you  interpret  these  facts,  and  see  what  is  their  purport? 
What  do  you  think  that  those  men  think  of  your  lives,  to  whom 
the  lives  of  those  men  who  they  hope  will  consult  the  welfare  of 
the  republic  are  so  dear?  I  have  reaped,  O  conscript  fathers, 
the  reward  of  my  return,  since  I  have  said  enough  to  bear  testi- 
mony of  my  consistency  whatever  event  may  befall  me,  and 
since  I  have  been  kindly  and  attentively  listened  to  by  you. 
And  if  I  have  such  opportunities  frequently  without  exposing 
both  myself  and  you  to  danger,  I  shall  avail  myself  of  them.  If 
not,  as  far  as  I  can  I  shall  reserve  myself  not  for  myself,  but 
rather  for  the  republic.  I  have  lived  long  enough  for  the  course 
of  human  life,  or  for  my  own  glory.  If  any  additional  life  is 
granted  to  me,  it  shall  be  bestowed  not  so  much  on  myself  as  on 
you  and  on  the  republic. 


THE    SECOND    ORATION    AGAINST 
MARCUS    ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Second  Philippic 


THE  ARGUMENT 

This  second  speech  was  not  actually  spoken  at  all.  Antonius  was 
greatly  enraged  at  the  first  speech,  and  summoned  another  meeting 
of  the  Senate  for  the  nineteenth  day  of  the  month,  giving  Cicero 
especial  notice  to  be  present,  and  he  employed  the  interval  in  prepar- 
ing an  invective  against  Cicero,  and  a  reply  to  the  first  Philippic.  The 
Senate  met  in  the  temple  of  Concord,  but  Cicero  himself  was  per- 
suaded not  to  attend  by  his  friends,  who  were  afraid  of  Antonius 
proceeding  to  actual  violence  against  him  (and  indeed  he  brought  a 
strong  guard  of  armed  men  with  him  to  the  Senate).  He  spoke  with 
the  greatest  fury  against  Cicero,  charging  him  with  having  been  the 
principal  author  and  contriver  of  Caesar's  murder,  hoping  by  this  to 
inflame  the  soldiers,  whom  he  had  posted  within  hearing  of  his 
harangue. 

Soon  after  this  Cicero  removed  to  a  villa  near  Naples  for  greater 
safety,  and  here  he  composed  this  second  Philippic,  which  he  did 
not  publish  immediately,  but  contented  himself  at  first  with  sending 
a  copy  to  Brutus  and  Cassius,  wh^  were  much  pleased  with  it. 


342 


THE  SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST 
MARCUS  ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Second  Philippic 

TO  what  destiny  of  mine,  O  conscript  fathers,  shall  I  say 
that  it  is  owing,  that  none  for  the  last  twenty  years  has 
been  an  enemy  to  the  republic  without  at  the  same  time 
declaring  war  against  me?  Nor  is  there  any  necessity  for 
naming  any  particular  person;  you  yourselves  recollect  in- 
stances in  proof  of  my  statement.  They  have  all  hitherto  suf- 
fered severer  punishments  than  I  could  have  wished  for  them ; 
but  I  marvel  that  you,  O  Antonius,  do  not  fear  the  end  of  those 
men  whose  conduct  you  are  imitating.  And  in  others  I  was 
less  surprised  at  this.  None  of  those  men  of  former  times  was 
a  voluntary  enemy  to  me ;  all  of  them  were  attacked  by  me  for 
the  sake  of  the  republic.  But  you,  who  have  never  been  injured 
by  me,  not  even  by  a  word,  in  order  to  appear  more  audacious 
than  Catiline,  more  frantic  than  Clodius,  have  of  your  own 
accord  attacked  me  with  abuse,  and  have  considered  that  your 
alienation  from  me  would  be  a  recommendation  of  you  to  im- 
pious citizens. 

What  am  I  to  think?  that  I  have  been  despised?  I  see 
nothing  either  in  my  life,  or  in  my  influence  in  the  city,  or  in 
my  exploits,  or  even  in  the  moderate  abilities  with  which  I  am 
endowed,  which  Antonius  can  despise.  Did  he  think  that  it 
was  easiest  to  disparage  me  in  the  Senate?  a  body  which  has 
borne  its  testimony  in  favor  of  many  most  illustrious  citizens 
that  they  governed  the  republic  well,  but  in  favor  of  me  alone, 
of  all  men,  that  I  preserved  it.  Or  did  he  wish  to  contend 
with  me  in  a  rivalry  of  eloquence?  This,  indeed,  is  an  act 
of  generosity?  for  what  could  be  a  more  fertile  or  richer  sub- 
ject for  me,  than  to  have  to  speak  in  defence  of  myself,  and 
against  Antonius?  This,  in  fact,  is  the  truth.  He  thought 

343 


344 


CICERO 


it  impossible  to  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  men  who  re- 
sembled himself,  that  he  was  an  enemy  to  his  country,  if  he 
was  not  also  an  enemy  to  me.  And  before  I  make  him  any 
reply  on  the  other  topics  of  his  speech,  I  will  say  a  few  words 
respecting  the  friendship  formerly  subsisting  between  us,  which 
he  has  accused  me  of  violating,  for  that  I  consider  a  most 
serious  charge. 

He  has  complained  that  I  pleaded  once  against  his  inter- 
est. Was  I  not  to  plead  against  one  with  whom  I  was  quite 
unconnected,  in  behalf  of  an  intimate  acquaintance,  of  a  dear 
friend?  Was  I  not  to  plead  against  interest  acquired  not  by 
hopes  of  virtue,  but  by  the  disgrace  of  youth?  Was  I  not  to 
plead  against  an  injustice  which  that  man  procured  to  be  done 
by  the  obsequiousness  of  a  most  iniquitous  interposer  of  his 
veto,  not  by  any  law  regulating  the  privileges  of  the  praetor? 
But  I  imagine  that  this  was  mentioned  by  you,  in  order  that 
you  might  recommend  yourself  to  the  citizens,  if  they  all  rec- 
ollected that  you  were  the  son-in-law  of  a  freedman,  and  that 
your  children  were  the  grandsons  of  Quintus  Fadius,  a  freed- 
man. 

But  you  had  entirely  devoted  yourself  to  my  principles  (for 
this  is  what  you  said)  ;  you  had  been  in  the  habit  of  com- 
ing to  my  house.  In  truth,  if  you  had  done  so,  you  would 
more  have  consulted  your  own  character  and  your  reputation 
for  chastity.  But  you  did  not  do  so,  nor,  if  you  had  wished  it, 
would  Caius  Curio  have  ever  suffered  you  to  do  so.  You  have 
said  that  you  retired  in  my  favor  from  the  contest  for  the  au- 
gurship.  Oh,  the  incredible  audacity!  oh,  the  monstrous  im- 
prudence of  such  an  assertion !  For,  at  the  time  when  Cnaeus 
Pompeius  and  Quintus  Hortensius  named  me  as  augur,  after 
I  had  been  wished  for  as  such  by  the  whole  college  (for  it 
was  not  lawful  for  me  to  be  put  in  nomination  by  more  than 
two  members  of  the  college),  you  were  notoriously  insolvent, 
nor  did  you  think  it  possible  for  your  safety  to  be  secured  by 
any  other  means  than  by  the  destruction  of  the  republic.  But 
was  it  possible  for  you  to  stand  for  the  augurship  at  a  time 
when  Curio  was  not  in  Italy?  or  even  at  the  time  when  you 
were  elected,  could  you  have  got  the  votes  of  one  single  tribe 
without  the  aid  of  Curio?  whose  intimate  friends  even  were 
convicted  of  violence  for  having  been  too  zealous  in  your  favor. 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       345 

But  I  availed  myself  of  your  friendly  assistance.  Of  what 
assistance?  Although  the  instance  which  you  cite  I  have  my- 
self at  all  times  openly  admitted.  I  preferred  confessing  that 
I  was  under  obligations  to  you,  to  letting  myself  appear  to 
any  foolish  person  not  sufficiently  grateful.  However,  what 
was  the  kindness  that  you  did  me?  not  killing  me  at  Brun- 
dusium?  Would  you  then  have  slain  the  man  whom  the  con- 
queror himself,  who  conferred  on  you,  as  you  used  to  boast, 
the  chief  rank  among  all  his  robbers,  had  desired  to  be  safe, 
and  had  enjoined  to  go  to  Italy?  Grant  that  you  could  have 
slain  him,  is  not  this,  O  conscript  fathers,  such  a  kindness  as 
is  done  by  banditti,  who  are  contented  with  being  able  to  boast 
that  they  have  granted  their  lives  to  all  those  men  whose  lives 
they  have  not  taken?  and  if  that  were  really  a  kindness,  then 
those  who  slew  that  man  by  whom  they  themselves  had  been 
saved,  and  whom  you  yourself  are  in  the  habit  of  styling  most 
illustrious  men,  would  never  have  acquired  such  immortal 
glory.  But  what  sort  of  kindness  is  it,  to  have  abstained  from 
committing  nefarious  wickedness?  It  is  a  case  in  which  it 
ought  not  to  appear  so  delightful  to  me  not  to  have  been  killed 
by  you,  as  miserable,  that  it  should  have  been  in  your  power 
to  do  such  a  thing  with  impunity.  However,  grant  that  it 
was  a  kindness,  since  no  greater  kindness  could  be  received 
from  a  robber,  still  in  what  point  can  you  call  me  ungrateful? 
Ought  I  not  to  complain  of  the  ruin  of  the  republic,  lest  I 
should  appear  ungrateful  toward  you?  But  in  that  com- 
plaint, mournful  indeed  and  miserable,  but  still  unavoidable 
for  a  man  of  that  rank  in  which  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome 
have  placed  me,  what  did  I  say  that  was  insulting?  that  was 
otherwise  than  moderate?  that  was  otherwise  than  friendly? 
and  what  instance  was  it  not  of  moderation  to  complain  of 
the  conduct  of  Marcus  Antonius,  and  yet  to  abstain  from  any 
abusive  expressions  ?  especially  when  you  had  scattered  abroad 
all  relics  of  the  republic ;  when  everything  was  on  sale  at  your 
house  by  the  most  infamous  traffic;  when  you  confessed  that 
those  laws  which  had  never  been  promulgated,  had  been  passed 
with  reference  to  you,  and  by  you ;  when  you,  being  augur, 
had  abolished  the  auspices,  being  consul,  had  taken  away  the 
power  of  interposing  the  veto ;  when  you  were  escorted  in  the 
most  shameful  manner  by  armed  guards ;  when,  worn  out  with 


346  CICERO 

drunkenness  and  debauchery,  you  were  every  day  performing 
all  sorts  of  obscenities  in  that  chaste  house  of  yours.  But  1, 
as  if  I  had  to  contend  against  Marcus  Crassus,  with  whom  I 
have  had  many  severe  struggles,  and  not  with  a  most  worth- 
less gladiator,  while  complaining  in  dignified  language  of  the 
state  of  the  republic,  did  not  say  one  word  which  could  be 
called  personal.  Therefore,  to-day  I  will  make  him  under- 
stand with  what  great  kindness  he  was  then  treated  by  me. 

But  he  also  read  letters  which  he  said  that  I  had  sent  to 
him,  like  a  man  devoid  of  humanity  and  ignorant  of  the 
common  usages  of  life.  For  who  ever,  who  was  even  but 
slightly  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  polite  men,  produced  in 
an  assembly  and  openly  read  letters  which  had  been  sent  to 
him  by  a  friend,  just  because  some  quarrel  had  arisen  between 
them?  It  not  this  destroying  all  companionship  in  life,  de- 
stroying the  means  by  which  absent  friends  converse  together  ? 
How  many  jests  are  frequently  put  in  letters,  which,  if  they 
were  produced  in  public,  would  appear  stupid!  How  many 
serious  opinions,  which,  for  all  that,  ought  not  to  be  published ! 
Let  this  be  a  proof  of  your  utter  ignorance  of  courtesy.  Now 
mark,  also,  his  incredible  folly.  What  have  you  to  oppose 
to  me,  O  you  eloquent  man,  as  you  seem  at  least  to  Mus- 
tela  Tamisius,  and  to  Tiro  Numisius?  And  while  these  men 
are  standing  at  this  very  time  in  the  sight  of  the  Senate  with 
drawn  swords,  I  too  will  think  you  an  eloquent  man  if  you 
will  show  how  you  would  defend  them  if  they  were  charged 
with  being  assassins.  However,  what  answer  would  you  make 
if  I  were  to  deny  that  I  ever  sent  those  letters  to  you?  By 
what  evidence  could  you  convict  me ?  by  my  handwriting?  Of 
handwriting  indeed  you  have  a  lucrative  knowledge.1  How 
can  you  prove  it  in  that  manner?  for  the  letters  are  written 
by  an  amanuensis.  By  this  time  I  envy  your  teacher,  who 
for  all  that  payment,  which  I  shall  mention  presently,  has 
taught  you  to  know  nothing. 

For  what  can  be  less  like,  I  do  not  say  an  orator,  but  a  man, 
than  to  reproach  an  adversary  with  a  thing  which  if  he  denies 
by  one  single  word,  he  who  has  reproached  him  cannot  ad- 
vance one  step  further?  But  I  do  not  deny  it;  and  in  this 
very  point  I  convict  you  not  only  of  inhumanity,  but  also  of 

1  He  means  to  insinuate  that  Antonius  had   been   forging    Caesar's   handwriting 
and  signature. 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       347 

madness.  For  what  expression  is  there  in  those  letters  which 
is  not  full  of  humanity  and  service  and  benevolence?  and  the 
whole  of  your  charge  amounts  to  this,  that  I  do  not  express  a 
bad  opinion  of  you  in  those  letters;  that  in  them  I  wrote  as 
to  a  citizen,  and  as  to  a  virtuous  man,  not  as  to  a  wicked  man 
and  a  robber.  But  your  letters  I  will  not  produce,  although 
I  fairly  might,  now  that  I  am  thus  challenged  by  you ;  letters 
in  which  you  beg  of  me  that  you  may  be  enabled  by  my  con- 
sent to  procure  the  recall  of  someone  from  exile ;  and  you 
will  not  attempt  it  if  I  have  any  objection,  and  you  prevail 
on  me  by  your  entreaties.  For  why  should  I  put  myself  in 
the  way  of  your  audacity?  when  neither  the  authority  of  this 
body,  nor  the  opinion  of  the  Roman  people,  nor  any  laws  are 
able  to  restrain  you.  However,  what  was  the  object  of  your 
addressing  these  entreaties  to  me,  if  the  man  for  whom  you 
were  entreating  was  already  restored  by  a  law  of  Caesar's?  I 
suppose  the  truth  was  that  he  wished  it  to  be  done  by  me 
as  a  favor;  in  which  matter  there  could  not  be  any  favor 
done  even  by  himself,  if  a  law  was  already  passed  for  the 
purpose. 

But  as,  O  conscript  fathers,  I  have  many  things  which 
I  must  say  both  in  my  own  defence  and  against  Marcus  An- 
tonius,  one  thing  I  ask  you,  that  you  will  listen  to  me  with 
kindness  while  I  am  speaking  for  myself ;  the  other  I  will  in- 
sure myself,  namely,  that  you  shall  listen  to  me  with  attention 
while  speaking  against  him.  At  the  same  time  also,  I  beg 
this  of  you ;  that  if  you  have  been  acquainted  with  my  mod- 
eration and  modesty  throughout  my  whole  life,  and  especially 
as  a  speaker,  you  will  not,  when  to-day  I  answer  this  man  in 
the  spirit  in  which  he  has  attacked  me,  think  that  I  have  for- 
gotten my  usual  character.  I  will  not  treat  him  as  a  consul, 
for  he  did  not  treat  me  as  a  man  of  consular  rank;  and  al- 
though he  in  no  respect  deserves  to  be  considered  a  consul, 
whether  we  regard  his  way  of  life,  or  his  principle  of  govern- 
ing the  republic,  or  the  manner  in  which  he  was  elected,  I  am 
beyond  all  dispute  a  man  of  consular  rank. 

That,  therefore,  you  might  understand  what  sort  of  a  con- 
sul he  professed  to  be  himself,  he  reproached  me  with  my 
consulship — a  consulship  which,  O  conscript  fathers,  was  in 
name,  indeed,  mine,  but  in  reality  yours.  For  what  did  I  de- 


348  CICERO 

termine,  what  did  I  contrive,  what  did  I  do,  that  was  not  de- 
termined, contrived,  or  done,  by  the  counsel  and  authority  and 
in  accordance  with  the  sentiments  of  this  order?  And  have 
you,  O  wise  man,  O  man  not  merely  eloquent,  dared  to  find 
fault  with  these  actions  before  the  very  men  by  whose  counsel 
and  wisdom  they  were  performed?  But  who  was  ever  found 
before,  except  Publius  Clodius,  to  find  fault  with  my  consul- 
ship? And  his  fate  indeed  awaits  you,  as  it  also  awaited 
Caius  Curio ;  since  that  is  now  in  your  house  which  was  fatal 
to  each  of  them.2 

Marcus  Antonius  disapproves  of  my  consulship ;  but  it  was 
approved  of  by  Publius  Servilius — to  name  that  man  first  of 
the  men  of  consular  rank  who  had  died  most  recently.  It  was 
approved  of  by  Quintus  Catulus,  whose  authority  will  always 
carry  weight  in  this  republic ;  it  was  approved  of  by  the  two 
Luculli,  by  Marcus  Crassus,  by  Quintus  Hortensius,  by  Caius 
Curio,  by  Caius  Piso,  by  Marcus  Glabrio,  by  Marcus  Lepidus, 
by  Lucius  Volcatius,  by  Caius  Figulus,  by  Decimus  Silanus 
and  Lucius  Murena,  who  at  that  time  were  the  consuls  elect; 
the  same  consulship  also  which  was  approved  of  by  those  men 
of  consular  rank,  was  approved  of  by  Marcus  Cato ;  who  es- 
caped many  evils  by  departing  from  this  life,  and  especially 
the  evil  of  seeing  you  consul.  But,  above  all,  my  consulship 
was  approved  of  by  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  who,  when  he  first  saw 
me,  as  he  was  leaving  Syria,  embracing  me  and  congratulating 
me,  said,  that  it  was  owing  to  my  services  that  he  was  about 
to  see  his  country  again.  But  why  should  I  mention  individ- 
uals ?  It  was  approved  of  by  the  Senate,  in  a  very  full  house, 
so  completely,  that  there  was  no  one  who  did  not  thank  me 
as  if  I  had  been  his  parent,  who  did  not  attribute  to  me  the 
salvation  of  his  life,  of  his  fortunes,  of  his  children,  and  of  the 
republic. 

But,  since  the  republic  has  been  now  deprived  of  those 
men  whom  I  have  named,  many  and  illustrious  as  they  were, 
let  us  come  to  the  living,  since  two  of  the  men  of  consular 
rank  are  still  left  to  us :  Lucius  Cotta,  a  man  of  the  greatest 
genius  and  the  most  consummate  prudence,  proposed  a  sup- 
plication in  my  honor  for  those  very  actions  with  which  you 

*  Fulvia,    who   had    been    the    wife    of  Clodius,    and    afterward    of    Curio,    was 
now  the  wife  of  Antonius. 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       349 

find  fault,  in  the  most  complimentary  language,  and  those  very 
men  of  consular  rank  whom  I  have  named,  and  the  whole  Sen- 
ate, adopted  his  proposal ;  an  honor  which  has  never  been  paid 
to  anyone  else  in  the  garb  of  peace  from  the  foundation  of 
the  city  to  my  time.  With  what  eloquence,  with  what  firm 
wisdom,  with  what  a  weight  of  authority  did  Lucius  Caesar, 
your  uncle,  pronounce  his  opinion  against  the  husband  of  his 
own  sister,  your  step-father.  But  you,  when  you  ought  to  have 
taken  him  as  your  adviser  and  tutor  in  all  your  designs,  and 
in  the  whole  conduct  of  your  life,  preferred  being  like  your 
step-father  to  resembling  your  uncle.  I,  who  had  no  connec- 
tion with  him,  acted  by  his  counsels  while  I  was  consul.  Did 
you,  who  were  his  sister's  son,  ever  once  consult  him  on  the 
affairs  of  the  republic  ? 

But  who  are  they  whom  Antonius  does  consult?  O  ye  im- 
mortal gods,  they  are  men  whose  birth-days  we  have  still  to 
learn.  To-day  Antonius  is  not  coming  down.  Why?  He  is 
celebrating  the  birth-day  feast  at  his  villa.  In  whose  honor? 
I  will  name  no  one.  Suppose  it  is.  in  honor  of  some  Phormio, 
or  Gnatho,  or  even  Ballio.3  Oh,  the  abominable  profligacy 
of  the  man !  oh,  how  intolerable  is  his  impudence,  his  debauch- 
ery, and  his  lust !  Can  you,  when  you  have  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Senate,  a  citizen  of  singular  virtue,  so  nearly  related  to 
you,  abstain  from  ever  consulting  him  on  the  affairs  of  the  re- 
public, and  consult  men  who  have  no  property  whatever  of 
their  own,  and  are  draining  yours  ? 

Yes,  your  consulship,  forsooth,  is  a  salutary  one  for  the 
state,  mine  a  mischievous  one.  Have  you  so  entirely  lost  all 
shame  as  well  as  all  chastity,  that  you  could  venture  to  say 
this  in  that  temple  in  which  I  was  consulting  that  Senate 
which  formerly  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  its  honors  presided 
over  the  world?  And  did  you  place  around  it  abandoned 
men  armed  with  swords?  But  you  have  dared  besides  (what 
is  there  which  you  would  not  dare?)  to  say  that  the  Capito- 
line  Hill,  when  I  was  consul,  was  full  of  armed  slaves.  I  was 
offering  violence  to  the  Senate,  I  suppose,  in  order  to  com- 
pel the  adoption  of  those  infamous  decrees  of  the  Senate.  O 
wretched  man,  whether  those  things  are  not  known  to  you 
(for  you  know  nothing  that  is  good),  or  whether  they  are, 

*  These  were  the  names  of  slaves. 


350  CICERO 

when  you  dare  to  speak  so  shamelessly  before  such  men !  For 
what  Roman  knight  was  there,  what  youth  of  noble  birth  ex- 
cept you,  what  man  of  any  rank  or  class  who  recollected  that 
he  was  a  citizen,  who  was  not  on  the  Capitoline  Hill  while 
the  Senate  was  assembled  in  this  temple  ?  who  was  there,  who 
did  not  give  in  his  name?  Although  there  could  not  be  pro- 
vided checks  enough,  nor  were  the  books  able  to  contain  their 
names. 

In  truth,  when  wicked  men,  being  compelled  by  the  reve- 
lations of  the  accomplices,  by  their  own  handwriting,  and  by 
what  I  may  almost  call  the  voices  of  their  letters,  were  con- 
fessing that  they  had  planned  the  parricidal  destruction  of  their 
country,  and  that  they  had  agreed  to  burn  the  city,  to  massacre 
the  citizens,  to  devastate  Italy,  to  destroy  the  republic;  who 
could  have  existed  without  being  roused  to  defend  the  com- 
mon safety?  especially  when  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome 
had  a  leader  then ;  and  if  they  had  one  now  like  he  was  then, 
the  same  fate  would  befall  you  which  did  overtake  them. 

He  asserts  that  the  body  of  his  step-father  was  not  allowed 
burial  by  me.  But  this  is  an  assertion  that  was  never  made 
by  Publius  Clodius,  a  man  whom,  as  I  was  deservedly  an  en- 
emy of  his,  I  grieve  now  to  see  surpassed  by  you  in  every  sort 
of  vice.  But  how  could  it  occur  to  you  to  recall  to  our  rec- 
ollection that  you  had  been  educated  in  the  house  of  Publius 
Lentulus?  Were  you  afraid  that  we  might  think  that  you 
could  have  turned  out  as  infamous  as  you  are  by  the  mere 
force  of  nature,  if  your  natural  qualities  had  not  been  strength- 
ened by  education  ? 

But  you  are  so  senseless  that  throughout  the  whole  of 
your  speech  you  were  at  variance  with  yourself;  so  that  you 
said  things  which  had  not  only  no  coherence  with  each  other, 
but  which  were  most  inconsistent  with  and  contradictory  to 
one  another ;  so  that  there  was  not  so  much  opposition  between 
you  and  me  as  there  was  between  you  and  yourself.  You 
confessed  that  your  step-father  had  been  implicated  in  that 
enormous  wickedness,  yet  you  complained  that  he  had  had 
punishment  inflicted  on  him.  And  by  doing  so  you  praised 
what  was  peculiarly  my  achievement,  and  blamed  that  which 
was  wholly  the  act  of  the  Senate.  For  the  detection  and  ar- 
rest of  the  guilty  parties  was  my  work,  their  punishment  was 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       35! 

the  work  of  the  Senate.  But  that  eloquent  man  does  not 
perceive  that  the  man  against  whom  he  is  speaking  is  being 
praised  by  him,  and  that  those  before  whom  he  is  speaking 
are  being  attacked  by  him.  But  now  what  an  act,  I  will  not 
say  of  audacity  (for  he  is  anxious  to  be  audacious),  but  (and 
that  is  what  he  is  not  desirous  of)  what  an  act  of  folly,  in 
which  he  surpasses  all  men,  is  it  to  make  mention  of  the  Cap- 
itoline  Hill,  at  a  time  when  armed  men  are  actually  between 
our  benches — when  men,  armed  with  swords,  are  now  stationed 
in  this  same  temple  of  Concord,  O  ye  immortal  gods,  in  which, 
while  I  was  consul,  opinions  most  salutary  to  the  state  were 
delivered,  owing  to  which  it  is  that  we  are  all  alive  at  this  day. 
Accuse  the  Senate;  accuse  the  equestrian  body,  which  at 
that  time  was  united  with  the  Senate;  accuse  every  order  of 
society,  and  all  the  citizens,  as  long  as  you  confess  that  this 
assembly  at  this  very  moment  is  besieged  by  Ityrean  4  soldiers. 
It  is  not  so  much  a  proof  of  audacity  to  advance  these  state- 
ments so  impudently,  as  of  utter  want  of  sense  to  be  unable 
to  see  their  contradictory  nature.  For  what  is  more  insane 
than,  after  you  yourself  have  taken  up  arms  to  do  mischief  to 
the  republic,  to  reproach  another  with  having  taken  them  up 
to  secure  its  safety?  On  one  occasion  you  attempted  even  to 
be  witty.  O  ye  good  gods,  how  little  did  that  attempt  suit 
you !  And  yet  you  are  a  little  to  be  blamed  for  your  failure 
in  that  instance,  too.  For  you  might  have  got  some  wit  from 
your  wife,  who  was  an  actress.  "  Arms  to  the  gown  must 
yield."  Well,  have  they  not  yielded?  But  afterward  the 
gown  yielded  to  your  arms.  Let  us  inquire  then  whether  it 
was  better  for  the  arms  of  wicked  men  to  yield  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  Roman  people,  or  that  our  liberty  should  yield  to 
your  arms.  Nor  will  I  make  any  further  reply  to  you  about 
the  verses.  I  will  only  say  briefly  that  you  do  not  understand 
them,  nor  any  other  literature  whatever.  That  I  have  never 
at  any  time  been  wanting  to  the  claims  that  either  the  repub- 
lic or  my  friends  had  upon  me;  but  nevertheless  that  in  all 
the  different  sorts  of  composition  on  which  I  have  employed 
myself,  during  my  leisure  hours,  I  have  always  endeavored  to 
make  my  labors  and  my  writings  such  as  to  be  some  advan- 
tage to  our  youth,  and  some  credit  to  the  Roman  name.  But, 

*  Ityra  was  a  town  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Taurus. 


352 


CICERO 


however,  all  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  present  occasion. 
Let  us  consider  more  important  matters. 

You  have  said  that  Publius  Clodius  was  slain  by  my  con- 
trivance. What  would  men  have  thought  if  he  had  been 
slain  at  the  time  when  you  pursued  him  in  the  forum  with  a 
drawn  sword,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  Roman  people ;  and  when 
you  would  have  settled  his  business  if  he  had  not  thrown 
himself  up  the  stairs  of  a  bookseller's  shop,  and,  shutting  them 
against  you,  checked  your  attack  by  that  means?  And  I  con- 
fess that  at  that  time  I  fayored  you,  but  even  you  yourself 
do  not  say  that  I  had  advised  your  attempt.  But  as  for  Milo, 
it  was  not  possible  even  for  me  to  favor  his  action.  For  he 
had  finished  the  business  before  anyone  could  suspect  that  he 
was  going  to  do  it.  Oh,  but  I  advised  it.  I  suppose  Milo 
was  a  man  of  such  a  disposition  that  he  not  able  to  do  a 
service  to  the  republic  if  he  had  not  someone  to  advise  him 
to  do  it.  But  I  rejoiced  at  it.  Well,  suppose  I  did;  was  I 
to  be  the  only  sorrowful  person  in  the  city,  when  everyone 
else  was  in  such  delight?  Although  that  inquiry  into  the 
death  of  Publius  Clodius  was  not  instituted  with  any  great 
wisdom.  For  what  was  the  reason  for  having  a  new  law  to 
inquire  into  the  conduct  of  the  man  who  had  slain  him,  when 
there  was  a  form  of  inquiry  already  established  by  the  laws? 
However,  an  inquiry  was  instituted.  And  have  you  now 
been  found,  so  many  years  afterward,  to  say  a  thing  which, 
at  the  time  that  the  affair  was  under  discussion,  no  one  ven- 
tured to  say  against  me?  But  as  to  the  assertion  that  you 
have  dared  to  make,  and  that  at  great  length  too,  that  it  was 
by  my  means  that  Pompeius  was  alienated  from  his  friendship 
with  Caesar,  and  that  on  that  account  it  was  my  fault  that 
the  civil  war  was  originated ;  in  that  you  have  not  erred  so 
much  in  the  main  facts,  as  (and  that  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance) in  the  times. 

When  Marcus  Bibulus,  a  most  illustrious  citizen,  was 
consul,  I  omitted  nothing  which  I  could  possibly  do  or  at- 
tempt to  draw  off  Pompeius  from  his  union  with  Caesar.  In 
which,  however,  Caesar  was  more  fortunate  than  I,  for  he 
himself  drew  off  Pompeius  from  his  intimacy  with  me.  But 
afterward,  when  Pompeius  joined  Caesar  with  all  his  heart, 
what  could  have  been  my  object  in  attempting  to  separate 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS      353 

them  then?  It  would  have  been  the  part  of  a  fool  to  hope 
to  do  so,  and  of  an  impudent  man  to  advise  it.  However, 
two  occasions  did  arise,  on  which  I  gave  Pompeius  advice 
against  Caesar.  You  are  at  liberty  to  find  fault  with  my  con- 
duct on  those  occasions  if  you  can.  One  was  when  I  advised 
him  not  to  continue  Caesar's  government  for  five  years  more. 
The  other,  when  I  advised  him  not  to  permit  him  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  candidate  for  the  consulship  when  he  was  absent. 
And  if  I  had  been  able  to  prevail  on  him  in  either  of  these 
particulars,  we  should  never  have  fallen  into  our  present  mis- 
eries. 

Moreover,  I  also,  when  Pompeius  had  now  devoted  to  the 
service  of  Caesar  all  his  own  power,  and  all  the  power  of  the 
Roman  people,  and  had  begun  when  it  was  too  late  to  perceive 
all  those  things  which  I  had  foreseen  long  before,  and  when  I 
saw  that  a  refarious  war  was  about  to  be  waged  against  our 
country,  I  never  ceased  to  be  the  adviser  of  peace,  and  concord, 
and  some  arrangement.  And  that  language  of  mine  was  well 
known  to  many  people — "  I  wish,  O  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  that 
you  had  either  never  joined  in  a  confederacy  with  Caius  Caesar, 
or  else  that  you  had  never  broken  it  off.  The  one  conduct 
would  have  become  your  dignity,  and  the  other  would  have 
been  suited  to  your  prudence."  This,  O  Marcus  Antonius, 
was  at  all  times  my  advice  both  respecting  Pompeius  and  con- 
cerning the  republic.  And  if  it  had  prevailed,  the  republic 
would  still  be  standing,  and  you  would  have  perished  through 
your  own  crimes,  and  indigence,  and  infamy. 

But  these  are  all  old  stories  now.  This  charge,  however, 
is  quite  a  modern  one,  that  Caesar  was  slain  by  my  contrivance. 
I  am  afraid,  O  conscript  fathers,  lest  I  should  appear  to  you 
to  have  brought  up  a  sham  accuser  against  myself  (which  is 
a  most  disgraceful  thing  to  do)  ;  a  man  not  only  to  distin- 
guish me  by  the  praises  which  are  my  due,  but  to  load  me  also 
with  those  which  do  not  belong  to  me.  For  who  ever  heard 
my  name  mentioned  as  an  accomplice  in  that  most  glorious 
action?  and  whose  name  has  been  concealed  who  was  in  the 
number  of  that  gallant  band  ?  Concealed,  do  I  say  ?  Whose 
name  was  there  which  was  not  at  once  made  public  ?  I  should 
sooner  say  that  some  men  had  boasted  in  order  to  appear  to 
have  been  concerned  in  that  conspiracy,  though  they  had  in 
23 


354 


CICERO 


reality  known  nothing  of  it,  than  that  anyone  who  had  been 
an  accomplice  in  it  could  have  wished  to  be  concealed.  More- 
over, how  likely  it  is,  that  among  such  a  number  of  men,  some 
obscure,  some  young  men  who  had  not  the  wit  to  conceal  any- 
one, my  name  could  possibly  have  escaped  notice !  Indeed, 
if  leaders  were  wanted  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  the  coun- 
try, what  need  was  there  of  my  instigating  the  Bruti,  one  of 
whom  saw  every  day  in  his  house  the  image  of  Lucius  Brutus, 
and  the  other  saw  also  the  image  of  Ahala?  Were  these  the 
men  to  seek  counsel  from  the  ancestors  of  others  rather  than 
from  their  own  ?  and  out  of  doors  rather  than  at  home  ?  What  ? 
Caius  Cassius,  a  man  of  that  family  which  could  not  endure, 
I  will  not  say  the  domination,  but  even  the  power  of  any  indi- 
vidual— he,  I  suppose,  was  in  need  of  me  to  instigate  him?  a 
man  who,  even  without  the  assistance  of  these  other  most  il- 
lustrious men,  would  have  accomplished  this  same  deed  in  Cili- 
cia,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cydnus,  if  Caesar  had  brought 
his  ships  to  that  bank  of  the  river  which  he  had  intended,  and 
not  to  the  opposite  one.  Was  Cnaeus  Domitius  spurred  on  to 
seek  to  recover  his  dignity,  not  by  the  death  of  his  father,  a 
most  illustrious  man,  nor  by  the  death  of  his  uncle,  nor  by 
the  deprivation  of  his  own  dignity,  but  by  my  advice  and  au- 
thority? Did  I  persuade  Caius  Trebonius?  a  man  whom  I 
should  not  have  ventured  even  to  advise.  On  which  account 
the  republic  owes  him  even  a  larger  debt  of  gratitude,  because 
he  preferred  the  liberty  of  the  Roman  people  to  the  friendship 
of  one  man,  and  because  he  preferred  overthrowing  arbitrary 
power  to  sharing  it.  Was  I  the  instigator  whom  Lucius  Tillius 
Cimber  followed  ?  a  man  whom  I  admired  for  having  performed 
that  action,  rather  than  ever  expected  that  he  would  perform  it ; 
and  I  admired  him  on  this  account,  that  he  was  unmindful  of 
the  personal  kindnesses  which  he  had  received,  but  mindful 
of  his  country.  What  shall  I  say  of  the  two  Servilii  ?  Shall  I 
call  them  Cascas,  or  Ahalas  ?  and  do  you  think  that  those  men 
were  instigated  by  my  authority  rather  than  by  their  affection 
for  the  republic  ?  It  would  take  a  long  time  to  go  through  all  the 
rest ;  and  it  is  a  glorious  thing  for  the  republic  that  they  were  so 
numerous,  and  a  most  honorable  thing  also  for  themselves. 

But  recollect,  I  pray  you,  how  that  clever  man  convict- 
ed me  of  being  an  accomplice  in  the  business.    When  Cassar 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       355 

was  slain,  says  he,  Marcus  Brutus  immediately  lifted  up  on  high 
his  bloody  dagger,  and  called  on  Cicero  by  name;  and  con- 
gratulated him  on  liberty  being  recovered.  Why  on  me  above 
all  men?  Because  I  knew  of  it  beforehand?  Consider  rather 
whether  this  was  not  his  reason  for  calling  on  me,  that,  when 
he  had  performed  an  action  very  like  those  which  I  myself  had 
done,  he  called  me  above  all  men  to  witness  that  he  had  been 
an  imitator  of  my  exploits.  But  you,  O  stupidest  of  all  men, 
do  not  you  perceive,  that  if  it  is  a  crime  to  have  wished  that 
Caesar  should  be  slain — which  you  accuse  me  of  having  wished 
— it  is  a  crime  also  to  have  rejoiced  at  his  death?  For  what 
is  the  difference  between  a  man  who  has  advised  an  action,  and 
one  who  has  approved  of  it?  or  what  does  it  signify  whether 
I  wished  it  to  be  done,  or  rejoice  that  it  has  been  done?  Is 
there  anyone  then,  except  you  yourself  and  those  men  who 
wished  him  to  become  a  king,  who  was  unwilling  that  that 
deed  should  be  done,  or  who  disapproved  of  it  after  it  was 
done?  All  men,  therefore,  are  guilty  as  far  as  this  goes.  In 
truth,  all  good  men,  as  far  as  it  depended  on  them,  bore  a  part 
in  the  slaying  of  Caesar.  Some  did  not  know  how  to  contrive 
it,  some  had  not  courage  for  it,  some  had  no  opportunity — 
everyone  had  the  inclination. 

However,  remark  the  stupidity  of  this  fellow — I  should 
rather  say,  of  this  brute  beast.  For  thus  he  spoke :  "  Mar- 
cus Brutus,  whom  I  name  to  do  him  honor,  holding  aloft 
his  bloody  dagger,  called  upon  Cicero,  from  which  it  must  be 
understood  that  he  was  privy  to  the  action."  Am  I  then  called 
wicked  by  you  because  you  suspect  that  I  suspected  something ; 
and  is  he  who  openly  displayed  his  reeking  dagger,  named  by 
you  that  you  may  do  him  honor?  Be  it  so.  Let  this  stupidity 
exist  in  your  language :  how  much  greater  is  it  in  your  actions 
and  opinions !  Arrange  matters  in  this  way  at  last,  O  consul ; 
pronounce  the  cause  of  the  Bruti,  of  Caius  Cassius,  of  Cnaeus 
Domitius,  of  Caius  Trebonius  and  the  rest  to  be  whatever  you 
please  to  call  it:  sleep  off  that  intoxication  of  yours,  sleep  it 
off  and  take  breath.  Must  one  apply  a  torch  to  you  to  waken 
you  while  you  are  sleeping  over  such  an  important  affair? 
Will  you  never  understand  that  you  have  to  decide  whether 
those  men  who  performed  that  action  are  homicides  or  as- 
sertors  of  freedom  ? 


356  CICERO 

For  just  consider  a  little ;  and  for  a  moment  think  of  the 
business  like  a  sober  man.  I  who,  as  I  myself  confess,  am  an 
intimate  friend  of  those  men,  and,  as  you  accuse  me,  an  ac- 
complice of  theirs,  deny  that  there  is  any  medium  between 
these  alternatives.  I  confess  that  they,  if  they  be  not  deliverers 
of  the  Roman  people  and  saviours  of  the  republic,  are  worse 
than  assassins,  worse  than  homicides,  worse  even  than  parri- 
cides :  since  it  is  a  more  atrocious  thing  to  murder  the  father 
of  one's  country,  than  one's  own  father.  You  wise  and  con- 
siderate man,  what  do  you  say  to  this?  If  they  are  parri- 
cides, why  are  they  always  named  by  you,  both  in  this  as- 
sembly and  before  the  Roman  people,  with  a  view  to  do  them 
honor?  Why  has  Marcus  Brutus  been,  on  your  motion,  ex- 
cused from  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  allowed  to  be  absent 
from  the  city  more  than  ten  days  ? 5  Why  were  the  games  of 
Apollo  celebrated  with  incredible  honor  to  Marcus  Brutus? 
why  were  provinces  given  to  Brutus  and  Cassius?  why  were 
quaestors  assigned  to  them?  why  was  the  number  of  their 
lieutenants  augmented?  And  all  these  measures  were  ow- 
ing to  you.  They  are  not  homicides  then.  It  follows  that  in 
your  opinion  they  are  deliverers  of  their  country,  since  there 
can  be  no  other  alternative.  What  is  the  matter?  Am  I  em- 
barrassing you?  'For  perhaps  you  do  not  quite  understand 
propositions  which  are  stated  disjunctively.  Still  this  is  the 
sum  total  of  my  conclusion;  that  since  they  are  acquitted  by 
you  of  wickedness,  they  are  at  the  same  time  pronounced 
most  worthy  of  the  very  most  honorable  rewards. 

Therefore,  I  will  now  proceed  again  with  my  oration.  I 
will  write  to  them,  if  anyone  by  chance  should  ask  whether 
what  you  have  imputed  to  me  be  true,  not  to  deny  it  to  any- 
one. In  truth,  I  am  afraid  that  it  must  be  considered  either 
a  not  very  creditable  thing  to  them,  that  they  should  have 
concealed  the  fact  of  my  being  an  accomplice ;  or  else  a  most 
discreditable  one  to  me  that  I  was  invited  to  be  one,  and  that 
I  shirked  it.  For  what  greater  exploit  (I  call  you  to  witness, 
O  august  Jupiter!)  was  ever  achieved  not  only  in  this  city, 
but  in  all  the  earth?  What  more  glorious  action  was  ever 
done  ?  What  deed  was  ever  more  deservedly  recommended  to 

5  Brutus  was  the  Praetor  urbanus  this        by  law  to  be  absent  more  than  ten  days 
year,    and    that    officer's    duty    confined        at  a  time  during  his  year  of  office, 
him  to  the  city;  and  he  was  forbidden 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       357 

the  everlasting  recollection  of  men?  Do  you,  then,  shut  me 
up  with  the  other  leaders  in  the  partnership  in  this  design,  as 
in  the  Trojan  horse?  I  have  no  objection;  I  even  thank  you 
for  doing  so,  with  whatever  intent  you  do  it.  For  the  deed 
is  so  great  a  one,  that  I  cannot  compare  the  unpopularity 
which  you  wish  to  excite  against  me  on  account  of  it,  with  its 
real  glory. 

For  who  can  be  happier  than  those  men  whom  you  boast 
of  having  now  expelled  and  driven  from  the  city?  What 
place  is  there  either  so  deserted  or  so  uncivilized,  as  not  to 
seem  to  greet  and  to  covet  the  presence  of  those  men  wherever 
they  have  arrived?  What  men  are  so  clownish  as  not,  when 
they  have  once  beheld  them,  to  think  that  they  have  reaped 
the  greatest  enjoyment  that  life  can  give?  And  what  poster- 
ity will  be  ever  so  forgetful,  what  literature  will  ever  be  found 
so  ungrateful,  as  not  to  cherish  their  glory  with  undying  recol- 
lection? Enroll  me  then,  I  beg,  in  the  number  of  those  men. 

But  one  thing  I  am  afraid  you  may  not  approve  of.  For 
if  I  had  really  been  one  of  their  number,  I  should  have  not 
only  got  rid  of  the  king,  but  of  the  kingly  power  also  out 
of  the  republic;  and  if  I  had  been  the  author  of  the  piece,  as 
it  is  said,  believe  me,  I  should  not  have  been  contented  with 
one  act,  but  should  have  finished  the  whole  play.  Although, 
if  it  be  a  crime  to  have  wished  that  Caesar  might  be  put  to 
death,  beware,  I  pray  you,  O  Antonius,  of  what  must  be  your 
own  case,  as  it  is  notorious  that  you,  when  at  Narbo,  formed 
a  plan  of  the  same  sort  with  Caius  Trebonius ;  and  it  was  on 
account  of  your  participation  in  that  design  that,  when  Csesar 
was  being  killed,  we  saw  you  called  aside  by  Trebonius.  But 
I  (see  how  far  I  am  from  any  horrible  inclination  toward,) 
praise  you  for  having  once  in  your  life  had  a  righteous  inten- 
tion ;  I  return  you  thanks  for  not  having  revealed  the  matter ; 
and  I  excuse  you  for  not  having  accomplished  your  purpose. 
That  exploit  required  a  man. 

And  if  anyone  should  institute  a  prosecution  against  you, 
and  employ  that  test  of  old  Cassius,  "  who  reaped  any  advan- 
tage from  it  ?  "  take  care,  I  advise  you,  lest  you  suit  that  de- 
scription. Although,  in  truth,  that  action  was,  as  you  used 
to  say,  an  advantage  to  everyone  who  was  not  willing  to  be 
a  slave,  still  it  was  so  to  you  above  all  men,who  are  not 


358 


CICERO 


merely  not  a  slave,  but  are  actually  a  king;  who  delivered 
yourself  from  an  enormous  burden  of  debt  at  the  temple  of 
Ops;  who,  by  your  dealings  with  the  account-books,  there 
squandered  a  countless  sum  of  money;  who  have  had  such 
vast  treasures  brought  to  you  from  Caesar's  house;  at  whose 
own  house  there  is  set  up  a  most  lucrative  manufactory  of 
false  memoranda  and  autographs,  and  a  most  iniquitous  market 
of  lands,  and  towns,  and  exemptions,  and  revenues.  In  truth, 
what  measure  except  the  death  of  Caesar  could  possibly  have 
been  any  relief  to  your  indigent  and  insolvent  condition  ?  You 
appear  to  be  somewhat  agitated.  Have  you  any  secret  fear 
that  you  yourself  may  appear  to  have  had  some  connection 
with  that  crime?  I  will  release  you  from  all  apprehension; 
no  one  will  ever  believe  it;  it  is  not  like  you  to  deserve  well 
of  the  republic;  the  most  illustrious  men  in  the  republic  are 
the  authors  of  that  exploit;  I  only  say  that  you  are  glad  it 
was  done ;  I  do  not  accuse  you  of  having  done  it. 

I  have  replied  to  your  heaviest  accusations,  I  must  now  also 
reply  to  the  rest  of  them. 

You  have  thrown  in  my  teeth  the  camp  of  Pompeius  and 
all  my  conduct  at  that  time.  At  which  time,  indeed,  if,  as 
I  have  said  before,  my  counsels  and  my  authority  had  pre- 
vailed, you  would  this  day  be  in  indigence,  we  should  be  free, 
and  the  republic  would  not  have  lost  so  many  generals  and  so 
many  armies.  For  I  confess  that,  when  I  saw  that  these 
things  certainly  would  happen,  which  now  have  happened,  I 
was  as  greatly  grieved  as  all  the  other  virtuous  citizens  would 
have  been  if  they  had  foreseen  the  same  things.  I  did  grieve, 
I  did  grieve,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  the  republic  which  had 
once  been  saved  by  your  counsels  and  mine,  was  fated  to  perish 
in  a  short  time.  Nor  was  I  so  inexperienced  in  and  ignorant 
of  this  nature  of  things,  as  to  be  disheartened  on  account  of 
a  fondness  for  life,  which  while  it  endured  would  wear  me  out 
with  anguish,  and  when  brought  to  an  end  would  release  me 
from  all  trouble.  But  I  was  desirous  that  those  most  illustri- 
ous men,  the  lights  of  the  republic,  should  live :  so  many  men 
of  consular  rank,  so  many  men  of  praetorian  rank,  so  many 
most  honorable  senators;  and  besides  them  all  the  flower  of 
our  nobility  and  of  our  youth ;  and  the  armies  of  excellent 
citizens.  And  if  they  were  still  alive,  under  ever  such  hard 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       359 

conditions  of  peace  (for  any  sort  of  peace  with  our  fellow- 
citizens  appeared  to  me  more  desirable  than  civil  war),  we 
should  be  still  this  day  enjoying  the  republic. 

And  if  my  opinion  had  prevailed,  and  if  those  men,  the 
preservation  of  whose  lives  was  my  main  object,  elated  with 
the  hope  of  victory,  had  not  been  my  chief  opposers,  to  say 
nothing  of  other  results,  at  all  events  you  would  never  have 
continued  in  this  order,  or  rather  in  this  city.  But  say  you, 
my  speech  alienated  from  me  the  regard  of  Pompeius  ?  Was 
there  anyone  to  whom  he  was  more  attached?  anyone  with 
whom  he  conversed  or  shared  his  counsels  more  frequently? 
It  was,  indeed,  a  great  thing  that  we,  differing  as  we  did  re- 
specting the  general  interests  of  the  republic,  should  continue 
in  uninterrupted  friendship.  But  I  saw  clearly  what  his  opin- 
ions and  views  were,  and  he  saw  mine  equally.  I  was  for 
providing  for  the  safety  of  the  citizens  in  the  first  place,  in 
order  that  we  might  be  able  to  consult  their  dignity  after- 
ward. He  thought  more  of  consulting  their  existing  dignity. 
But  because  each  of  us  had  a  definite  object  to  pursue,  our 
disagreement  was  the  more  endurable.  But  what  that  extra- 
ordinary and  almost  godlike  man  thought  of  me  is  known  to 
those  men  who  pursued  him  to  Paphos  from  the  battle  of 
Pharsalia.  No  mention  of  me  was  ever  made  by  him  that 
was  not  the  most  honorable  that  could  be,  that  was  not  full 
of  the  most  friendly  regret  for  me ;  while  he  confessed  that  I 
had  had  the  most  foresight,  but  that  he  had  had  more  san- 
guine hopes.  And  do  you  dare  taunt  me  with  the  name  of 
that  man  whose  friend  you  admit  that  I  was,  and  whose  as- 
sassin you  confess  yourself? 

However,  let  us  say  no  more  of  that  war,  in  which  you 
were  too  fortunate.  I  will  not  reply  even  with  those  jests  to 
which  you  have  said  that  I  gave  utterance  in  the  camp.  That 
camp  was  in  truth  full  of  anxiety,  but  although  men  are  in 
great  difficulties,  still,  provided  they  are  men,  they  sometimes 
relax  their  minds.  But  the  fact  that  the  same  man  finds  fault 
with  my  melancholy,  and  also  with  my  jokes,  is  a  great  proof 
that  I  was  very  moderate  in  each  particular. 

You  have  said  that  no  inheritances  come  to  me.  Would 
that  this  accusation  of  yours  were  a  true  one ;  I  should  have 
more  of  my  friends  and  connections  alive.  But  how  could 


360 


CICERO 


such  a  charge  ever  come  into  your  head?  For  I  have  re- 
ceived more  than  twenty  millions  of  sesterces  in  inheritances. 
Although  in  this  particular  I  admit  that  you  have  been  more 
fortunate  than  I.  No  one  has  ever  made  me  his  heir  except 
he  was  a  friend  of  mine,  in  order  that  my  grief  of  mind  for 
his  loss  might  be  accompanied  also  with  some  gain,  if  it  was 
to  be  considered  as  such.  But  a  man  whom  you  never  even 
saw,  Lucius  Rubrius,  of  Casinum,  made  you  his  heir.  And 
see  now  how  much  he  loved  you,  who,  though  he  did  not 
know  whether  you  were  white  or  black,  passed  over  the  son 
of  his  brother,  Quintus  Fufius,  a  most  honorable  Roman  knight, 
and  most  attached  to  him,  whom  he  had  on  all  occasions  openly 
declared  his  heir  (he  never  even  names  him  in  his  will),  and 
he  makes  you  his  heir  whom  he  had  never  seen,  or  at  all  events 
had  never  spoken  to. 

I  wish  you  would  tell  me,  if  it  is  not  too  much  trouble, 
what  sort  of  countenance  Lucius  Turselius  was  of;  what  sort 
of  height ;  from  what  municipal  town  he  came ;  and  of  what 
tribe  he  was  a  member.  "  I  know  nothing,"  you  will  say, 
"  about  him,  except  what  farms  he  had."  Therefore,  he,  dis- 
inheriting his  brother,  made  you  his  heir.  And  besides  these 
instances,  this  man  has  seized  on  much  other  property  be- 
longing to  men  wholly  unconnected  with  him,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  legitimate  heirs,  as  if  he  himself  were  the  heir. 
Although  the  thing  that  struck  me  with  most  astonishment 
of  all  was,  that  you  should  venture  to  make  mention  of  in- 
heritances, when  you  yourself  had  not  received  the  inheritance 
of  your  own  father. 

And  was  it  in  order  to  collect  all  these  arguments,  O  you 
most  senseless  of  men,  that  you  spent  so  many  days  in  prac- 
tising declamations  in  another  man's  villa?  Although,  indeed 
(as  your  most  intimate  friends  usually  say),  you  are  in  the 
habit  of  declaiming  not  for  the  purpose  of  whetting  your 
genius,  but  of  working  off  the  effects  of  wine.  And,  indeed, 
you  employ  a  master  to  teach  you  jokes,  a  man  appointed 
by  your  own  vote  and  that  of  your  boon  companions ;  a  rhet- 
orician, whom  you  have  allowed  to  say  whatever  he  pleased 
against  you,  a  thoroughly  facetious  gentleman;  but  there  are 
plenty  of  materials  for  speaking  against  you  and  against  your 
friends.  But  just  see  now  what  a  difference  there  is  between 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS       361 

you  and  your  grandfather.  He  used  with  great  deliberation  to 
bring  forth  arguments  advantageous  to  the  cause  he  was  ad- 
vocating ;  you  pour  forth  in  a  hurry  the  sentiments  which  you 
have  been  taught  by  another.  And  what  wages  have  you 
paid  this  rhetorician?  Listen,  listen,  O  conscript  fathers,  and 
learn  the  blows  which  are  inflicted  on  the  republic.  You  have 
assigned,  O  Antonius,  two  thousand  acres  6  of  land,  in  the 
Leontine  district,  to  Sextus  Clodius,  the  rhetorician,  and 
those,  too,  exempt  from  every  kind  of  tax,  for  the  sake  of 
putting  the  Roman  people  to  such  a  vast  expense  that  you 
might  learn  to  be  a  fool.  Was  this  gift,  too,  O  you  most  auda- 
cious of  men,  found  among  Caesar's  papers?  But  I  will  take 
another  opportunity  to  speak  about  the  Leontine  and  the 
Campanian  district;  where  he  has  stolen  lands  from  the  re- 
public to  pollute  them  with  most  infamous  owners.  For  now, 
since  I  have  sufficiently  replied  to  all  his  charges,  I  must  say 
a  little  about  our  corrector  and  censor  himself.  And  yet  I 
will  not  say  all  I  could,  in  order  that  if  I  have  often  to  battle 
with  him  I  may  always  come  to  the  contest  with  fresh  arms ; 
and  the  multitude  of  his  vices  and  atrocities  will  easily  enable 
me  to  do  so. 

Shall  we,  then,  examine  your  conduct  from  the  time  when 
you  were  a  boy  ?  I  think  so.  Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning. 
Do  you  recollect  that,  while  you  were  still  clad  in  the  praetexta, 
you  became  a  bankrupt?  That  was  the  fault  of  your  father, 
you  will  say.  I  admit  that.  In  truth,  such  a  defence  is  full  of 
filial  affection.  But  it  is  peculiarly  suited  to  your  own  audacity, 
that  you  sat  among  the  fourteen  rows  of  the  knights,  though 
by  the  Roscian  law  there  was  a  place  appointed  for  bankrupts, 
even  if  anyone  had  become  such  by  the  fault  of  fortune  and  not 
by  his  own.  You  assumed  the  manly  gown,  which  you  soon 
made  a  womanly  one ;  at  first  a  public  prostitute,  with  a  regular 
price  for  your  wickedness,  and  that  not  a  low  one.  But  very 
soon  Curio  stepped  in,  who  carried  you  off  from  your  public 
trade,  and,  as  if  he  had  bestowed  a  matron's  robe  upon  you, 
settled  you  in  a  steady  and  durable  wedlock.  No  boy  bought 
for  the  gratification  of  passion  was  ever  so  wholly  in  the  power 
of  his  master  as  you  were  in  Curio's.  How  often  has  his  father 

8  The     Latin      word     jugerurn      "  an  the  same  time  it  was  nearly  three  times 

acre,"    because    it    is    usually    so    trans-  as  large  as  the  Greek  v\i8pov,  which  is 

lated,  but   in  point  of  fact   it  was  not  often  translated  acre  also, 
quite  two-thirds  of  an  English  acre.    At 


362  CICERO 

turned  you  out  of  his  house  ?  How  often  has  he  placed  guards 
to  prevent  you  from  entering?  while  you,  with  night  for  your 
accomplice,  lust  for  your  encourager,  and  wages  for  your  com- 
peller,  were  let  down  through  the  roof.  That  house  could  no 
longer  endure  your  wickedness.  Do  you  not  know  that  I  am 
speaking  of  matters  with  which  I  am  thoroughly  acquainted  ? 
Remember  that  time  when  Curio,  the  father,  lay  weeping  in  his 
bed;  his  son,  throwing  himself  at  my  feet  with  tears,  recommend- 
ed to  me  you ;  he  entreated  me  to  defend  you  against  his  own 
father,  if  he  demanded  six  millions  of  sesterces  of  you ;  for  that 
he  had  been  bail  for  you  to  that  amount.  And  he  himself,  burn- 
ing with  love,  declared  positively  that  because  he  was  unable  to 
bear  the  misery  of  being  separated  from  you,  he  should  go  into 
banishment.  And  at  that  time  what  misery  of  that  most  flour- 
ishing family  did  I  allay,  or  rather  did  I  remove !  I  persuaded 
the  father  to  pay  the  son's  debts ;  to  release  the  young  man,  en- 
dowed as  he  was  with  great  promise  of  courage  and  ability,  by 
the  sacrifice  of  part  of  his  family  estate ;  and  to  use  his  privileges 
and  authority  as  a  father  to  prohibit  him  not  only  from  all  inti- 
macy with,  but  from  every  opportunity  of  meeting,  you.  When 
you  recollected  that  all  this  was  done  by  me,  would  you  have 
dared  to  provoke  me  by  abuse  if  you  had  not  been  trusting  to 
those  swords  which  we  behold  ? 

But  let  us  say  no  more  of  your  profligacy  and  debauchery. 
There  are  things  which  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  mention  with 
honor ;  but  you  are  all  the  more  free  for  that,  inasmuch  as  you 
have  not  scrupled  to  be  an  actor  in  scenes  which  a  modest 
enemy  cannot  bring  himself  to  mention. 

Mark  now,  O  conscript  fathers,  the  rest  of  his  life,  which  I 
will  touch  upon  rapidly.  For  my  inclination  hastens  to  arrive 
at  those  things  which  he  did  in  the  time  of  the  civil  war,  amid 
the  greatest  miseries  of  the  republic  and  at  those  things  which 
he  does  every  day.  And  I  beg  of  you,  though  they  are  far  bet- 
ter known  to  you  than  they  are  to  me,  still  to  listen  attentively, 
as  you  are  doing,  to  my  relation  of  them.  For  in  such  cases  as 
this,  it  is  not  the  mere  knowledge  of  such  actions  that  ought  to 
excite  the  mind,  but  the  recollection  of  them  also.  Although 
we  must  at  once  go  into  the  middle  of  them,  lest  otherwise  we 
should  be  too  long  in  coming  to  the  end. 

He  was  very  intimate  with  Clodius  at  the  time  of  his  tribune- 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       363 

ship ;  he,  who  now  enumerates  the  kindnesses  which  he  did  me. 
He  was  the  firebrand  to  handle  all  conflagrations ;  and  even  in 
his  house  he  attempted  something.  He  himself  well  knows 
what  I  allude  to.  From  thence  he  made  a  journey  to  Alexan- 
dria, in  defiance  of  the  authority  of  the  Senate,  and  against  the 
interests  of  the  republic,  and  in  spite  of  religious  obstacles ;  but 
he  had  Gabinius  for  his  leader,  with  whom  whatever  he  did  was 
sure  to  be  right.  What  were  the  circumstances  of  his  return 
from  thence  ?  what  sort  of  return  was  it  ?  He  went  from  Egypt 
to  the  farthest  extremity  of  Gaul  before  he  returned  home. 
And  what  was  his  home  ?  For  at  that  time  every  man  had  pos- 
session of  his  own  house ;  and  you  had  no  house  anywhere,  O 
Antonius.  House,  do  you  say?  what  place  was  there  in  the 
whole  world  where  you  could  set  your  foot  on  anything  that 
belonged  to  you  except  Misenum  which  you  farmed  with  your 
partners,  as  if  it  had  been  Sisapo  ?7 

You  came  from  Gaul  to  stand  for  the  qusestorship.  Dare  to 
say  that  you  went  to  your  own  father  before  you  came  to  me. 
I  had  already  received  Caesar's  letters,  begging  me  to  allow 
myself  to  accept  of  your  excuses ;  and  therefore,  I  did  not  allow 
you  even  to  mention  thanks.  After  that,  I  was  treated  with  re- 
spect by  you,  and  you  received  attentions  from  me  in  your  can- 
vass for  the  qusestorship.  And  it  was  at  that  time,  indeed,  that 
you  endeavored  to  slay  Publius  Clodius  in  the  forum,  with  the 
approbation  of  the  Roman  people ;  and  though  you  made  the 
attempt  of  your  own  accord,  and  not  at  my  instigation,  still  you 
clearly  alleged  that  you  did  not  think,  unless  you  slew  him,  that 
you  could  possibly  make  amends  to  me  for  all  the  injuries  which 
you  had  done  me.  And  this  makes  me  wonder  why  you  should 
say  that  Milo  did  that  deed  at  my  instigation ;  when  I  never  once 
exhorted  you  to  do  it,  who  of  your  own  accord  attempted  to  do 
me  the  same  service.  Although,  if  you  had  persisted  in  it,  I 
should  have  preferred  allowing  the  action  to  be  set  down  en- 
tirely to  your  own  love  of  glory  rather  than  to  my  influence. 

You  were  elected  quaestor.  On  this,  immediately,  without 
any  resolution  of  the  Senate  authorizing  such  a  step,  without 
drawing  lots,  without  procuring  any  law  to  be  passed,  you  has- 
tened to  Caesar.  For  you  thought  the  camp  the  only  refuge 

7  Sisapo   was   a   town   in   Spain,   celebrated    for    some    mines    of    vermilion, 
which  were  farmed  by  a  company. 


364 


CICERO 


on  earth  for  indigence,  and  debt,  and  profligacy — for  all  men,  in 
short,  who  were  in  a  state  of  utter  ruin.  Then,  when  you  had 
recruited  your  resources  again  by  his  largesses  and  your  own 
robberies  (if,  indeed,  a  person  can  be  said  to  recruit,  who  only 
acquires  something  which  he  may  immediately  squander),  you 
hastened,  being  again  a  beggar,  to  the  tribuneship,  in  order 
that  in  that  magistracy  you  might,  if  possible,  behave  like  your 
friend. 

Listen  now,  I  beseech  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  not  to  those 
things  which  he  did  indecently  and  profligately  to  his  own  in- 
jury and  to  his  own  disgrace  as  a  private  individual ;  but  to  the 
actions  which  he  did  impiously  and  wickedly  against  us  and 
our  fortunes — that  is  to  say,  against  the  whole  republic.  For 
it  is  from  his  wickedness  that  you  will  find  that  the  beginning 
of  all  these  evils  had  arisen. 

For  when,  in  the  consulship  of  Lucius  Lentulus  and  Marcus 
Marcellus,  you,  on  the  first  of  January,  were  anxious  to  prop  up 
the  republic,  which  was  tottering  and  almost  falling,  and  were 
willing  to  consult  the  interests  of  Caius  Caesar  himself,  if  he 
would  have  acted  like  a  man  in  his  senses,  then  this  fellow  op- 
posed to  your  counsels  his  tribuneship,  which  he  had  sold  and 
handed  over  to  the  purchaser,  and  exposed  his  own  neck  to  that 
axe  under  which  many  have  suffered  for  smaller  crimes.  It  was 
against  you,  O  Marcus  Antonius,  that  the  Senate,  while  still  in 
the  possession  of  its  rights,  before  so  many  of  its  luminaries 
were  extinguished,  passed  that  decree  which,  in  accordance 
with  the  usage  of  our  ancestors,  is  at  times  passed  against  an 
enemy  who  is  a  citizen.  And  have  you  dared,  before  these  con- 
script fathers,  to  say  anything  against  me,  when  I  have  been 
pronounced  by  this  order  to  be  the  saviour  of  my  country,  and 
when  you  have  been  declared  by  it  to  be  an  enemy  of  the  repub- 
lic? The  mention  of  that  wickedness  of  yours  has  been  inter- 
rupted, but  the  recollection  of  it  has  not  been  effaced.  As  long 
as  the  race  of  men,  as  long  as  the  name  of  the  Roman  people 
shall  exist  (and  that,  unless  it  is  prevented  from  being  so  by 
your  means,  will  be  everlasting),  so  long  will  that  most  mis- 
chievous interposition  of  your  veto  be  spoken  of.  What  was 
there  that  was  being  done  by  the  Senate  either  ambitiously  or 
rashly,  when  you,  one  single  young  man,  forbade  the  whole 
order  to  pass  decrees  concerning  the  safety  of  the  republic  ?  and 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       365 

when  you  did  so,  not  once  only,  but  repeatedly  ?  nor  would  you 
allow  anyone  to  plead  with  you  in  behalf  of  the  authority  of  the 
Senate ;  and  yet,  what  did  anyone  entreat  of  you,  except  that 
you  would  not  desire  the  republic  to  be  entirely  overthrown 
and  destroyed ;  when  neither  the  chief  men  of  the  state  by  their 
entreaties,  nor  the  elders  by  their  warnings,  nor  the  Senate  in  a 
full  house  by  pleading  with  you,  could  move  you  from  the  deter- 
mination which  you  had  already  sold  and  as  it  were  delivered 
to  the  purchaser  ?  Then  it  was,  after  having  tried  many  other 
expedients  previously,  that  a  blow  was  of  necessity  struck  at 
you  which  had  been  struck  at  only  few  men  before  you,  and 
which  none  of  them  had  ever  survived.  Then  it  was  that  this 
order  armed  the  consuls,  and  the  rest  of  the  magistrates  who 
were  invested  with  either  military  or  civil  command,  against 
you,  and  you  never  would  have  escaped  them,  if  you  had  not 
taken  refuge  in  the  camp  of  Caesar. 

It  was  you,  I  say,  O  Marcus  Antonius,  who  gave  Caius 
Caesar,  desirous  as  he  already  was  to  throw  everything  into 
confusion,  the  principal  pretext  for  waging  war  against  his 
country.  For  what  other  pretence  did  he  allege?  what  cause 
did  he  give  for  his  own  most  frantic  resolution  and  action,  ex- 
cept that  the  power  of  interposition  by  the  veto  had  been  disre- 
garded, the  privileges  of  the  tribunes  taken  away,  and  Antoni- 
us's  rights  abridged  by  the  Senate?  I  say  nothing  of  how  false, 
how  trivial  these  pretences  were;  especially  when  there  could 
not  possibly  be  any  reasonable  cause  whatever  to  justify  anyone 
in  taking  up  arms  against  his  country.  But  I  have  nothing 
to  do  with  Caesar.  You  must  unquestionably  allow,  that  the 
cause  of  that  ruinous  war  existed  in  your  person. 

O  miserable  man  if  you  are  aware,  more  miserable  still  if  you 
are  not  aware,  that  this  is  recorded  in  writings,  is  handed  down 
to  men's  recollection,  that  our  very  latest  posterity  in  the  most 
distant  ages  will  never  forget  this  fact,  that  the  consuls  were 
expelled  from  Italy,  and  with  them  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  who  was 
the  glory  and  light  of  the  empire  of  the  Roman  people ;  that 
all  the  men  of  consular  rank,  whose  health  would  allow  them  to 
share  in  that  disaster  and  that  flight,  and  the  praetors,  and  men 
of  praetorian  rank,  and  the  tribunes  of  the  people,  and  a  great 
part  of  the  Senate,  and  all  the  flower  of  the  youth  of  the  city, 
and,  in  a  word,  the  republic  itself  was  driven  out  and  expelled 


366  CICERO 

from  its  abode.  As,  then,  there  is  in  seeds  the  cause  which 
produces  trees  and  plants,  so  of  this  most  lamentable  war  you 
were  the  seed.  Do  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  grieve  that  these 
armies  of  the  Roman  people  have  been  slain  ?  It  is  Antonius 
who  slew  them.  Do  you  regret  your  most  illustrious  citizens  ? 
It  is  Antonius,  again,  who  has  deprived  you  of  them.  The 
authority  of  this  order  is  overthrown ;  it  is  Antonius  who  has 
overthrown  it.  Everything,  in  short,  which  we  have  seen  since 
that  time  (and  what  misfortune  is  there  that  we  have  not  seen  ?) 
we  shall,  if  we  argue  rightly,  attribute  wholly  to  Antonius.  As 
Helen  was  to  the  Trojans,  so  has  that  man  been  to  this  republic 
— the  cause  of  war,  the  cause  of  mischief,  the  cause  of  ruin. 
The  rest  of  his  tribuneship  was  like  the  beginning.  He  did 
everything  which  the  Senate  had  labored  to  prevent,  as  being 
impossible  to  be  done  consistently  with  the  safety  of  the  repub- 
lic. And  see,  now,  how  gratuitously  wicked  he  was  even  in  ac- 
complishing his  wickedness. 

He  restored  many  men  who  had  fallen  under  misfortune. 
Among  them  no  mention  was  made  of  his  uncle.  If  he  were 
severe,  why  was  he  not  so  to  everyone?  If  he  was  merciful, 
why  was  he  not  merciful  to  his  own  relations  ?  But  I  say  noth- 
ing of  the  rest.  He  restored  Licinius  Lenticula,  a  man  who 
had  been  condemned  for  gambling,  and  who  was  a  fellow-game- 
ster of  his  own.  As  if  he  could  not  play  with  a  condemned 
man ;  but  in  reality,  in  order  to  pay  by  a  straining  of  the  law  in 
his  favor,  what  he  had  lost  by  the  dice.  What  reason  did  you 
allege  to  the  Roman  people  why  it  was  desirable  that  he  should 
be  restored  ?  I  suppose  you  said  that  he  was  absent  when  the 
prosecution  was  instituted  against  him ;  that  the  cause  was  de- 
cided without  his  having  been  heard  in  his  defence;  that  there 
was  not  by  a  law  any  judicial  proceeding  established  with  refer- 
ence to  gambling ;  that  he  had  been  put  down  by  violence  or  by 
arms ;  or  lastly,  as  was  said  in  the  case  of  your  uncle,  that  the 
tribunal  had  been  bribed  with  money.  Nothing  of  this  sort 
was  said.  Then  he  was  a  good  man,  and  one  worthy  of  the 
republic.  That,  indeed,  would  have  been  nothing  to  the  pur- 
pose, but  still,  since  being  condemned  does  not  go  for  much,  I 
would  forgive  you  if  that  were  the  truth.  Does  not  he  restore 
to  the  full  possession  of  his  former  privileges  the  most  worth- 
less man  possible — one  who  would  not  hesitate  to  play  at  dice 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       367 

even  in  the  forum,  and  who  had  been  convicted  under  the  law 
which  exists  respecting  gambling — does  not  he  declare  in  the 
most  open  manner  his  own  propensities  ? 

Then  in  this  same  tribuneship,  when  Caesar  while  on  his  way 
into  Spain  had  given  him  Italy  to  trample  on,  what  journeys 
did  he  make  in  every  direction !  how  did  he  visit  the  municipal 
towns  !  I  know  that  I  am  only  speaking  of  matters  which  have 
been  discussed  in  everyone's  conversation,  and  that  the  things 
which  I  am  saying  and  am  going  to  say  are  better  known  to 
everyone  who  was  in  Italy  at  that  time,  than  to  me,  who  was  not. 
Still  I  mention  the  particulars  of  his  conduct,  although  my 
speech  cannot  possibly  come  up  to  your  own  personal  knowl- 
edge. When  was  such  wickedness  ever  heard  of  as  existing 
upon  earth  ?  or  shamelessness  ?  or  such  open  infamy  ? 

The  tribune  of  the  people  was  borne  along  in  a  chariot,  lictors 
crowned  with  laurel  preceded  him ;  among  whom,  on  an  open 
litter,  was  carried  an  actress ;  whom  honorable  men,  citizens  of 
the  different  municipalities,  coming  out  from  their  towns  under 
compulsion  to  meet  him,  saluted  not  by  the  name  by  which  she 
was  well  known  on  the  stage,  but  by  that  of  Volumnia.8  A  car 
followed  full  of  pimps ;  then  a  lot  of  debauched  companions ; 
and  then  his  mother,  utterly  neglected,  followed  the  mistress 
of  her  profligate  son,  as  if  she  had  been  her  daughter-in-law. 
O  the  disastrous  fecundity  of  that  miserable  woman !  With 
the  marks  of  such  wickedness  as  this  did  that  fellow  stamp  every 
municipality,  and  prefecture,  and  colony,  and,  in  short,  the 
whole  of  Italy. 

To  find  fault  with  the  rest  of  his  actions,  O  conscript  fathers, 
is  difficult,  and  somewhat  unsafe.  He  was  occupied  in  war; 
he  glutted  himself  with  the  slaughter  of  citizens  who  bore  no 
resemblance  to  himself.  He  was  fortunate — if  at  least  there 
can  be  any  good  fortune  in  wickedness.  But  since  we  wish  to 
show  a  regard  for  the  veterans,  although  the  cause  of  the  sol- 
diers is  very  different  from  yours ;  they  followed  their  chief ; 
you  went  to  seek  for  a  leader ;  still  (that  I  may  not  give  you  any 
pretence  for  stirring  up  odium  against  me  among  them),  I  will 
say  nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  war. 

8  She  was  a  courtesan  who  had  been  lanus,  to  whose  entreaties  he  had  yielded 

enfranchised  by  her  master  Volumnius.  when   he   drew   off   his   army   from   the 

The  name  of  Volumnia  was  dear  to  the  neighborhood  of  Rome. 
Romans  as  that  of  the  wife  of   Corio- 


368  CICERO 

When  victorious,  you  returned  with  the  legions  from  Thes- 
saly  to  Brundusium.  There  you  did  not  put  me  to  death.  It 
was  a  great  kindness !  For  I  confess  that  you  could  have  done 
it.  Although  there  was  no  one  of  those  men  who  were  with 
you  at  that  time,  who  did  not  think  that  I  ought  to  be  spared. 
For  so  great  is  men's  affection  for  their  country,  that  I  was 
sacred  even  in  the  eyes  of  your  legions,  because  they  recollected 
that  the  country  had  been  saved  by  me.  However,  grant  that 
you  did  give  me  what  you  did  not  take  away  from  me ;  and  that 
I  have  my  life  as  a  present  from  you,  since  it  was  not  taken  from 
me  by  you ;  was  it  possible  for  me,  after  all  your  insults,  to  re- 
gard that  kindness  of  yours  as  I  regarded  it  at  first,  especially 
after  you  saw  that  you  must  hear  this  reply  from  me  ? 

You  came  to  Brundusium,  to  the  bosom  and  embraces  of 
your  actress.  What  is  the  matter?  Am  I  speaking  falsely? 
How  miserable  is  it  not  to  be  able  to  deny  a  fact  which  it  is  dis- 
graceful to  confess  !  If  you  had  no  shame  before  the  municipal 
towns,  had  you  none  even  before  your  veteran  army?  For 
what  soldier  was  there  who  did  not  see  her  at  Brundusium  ? 
who  was  there  who  did  not  know  that  she  had  come  so  many 
days'  journey  to  congratulate  you  ?  who  was  there  who  did  not 
grieve  that  he  was  so  late  in  finding  out  how  worthless  a  man 
he  had  been  following? 

Again  you  made  a  tour  through  Italy,  with  that  same  actress 
for  your  companion.  Cruel  and  miserable  was  the  way  in 
which  you  led  your  soldiers  into  the  towns;  shameful  was  the 
pillage  in  every  city,  of  gold  and  silver,  and  above  all,  «of  wine. 
And  besides  all  this,  while  Caesar  knew  nothing  about  it,  as  he 
was  at  Alexandria,  Antonius,  by  the  kindness  of  Caesar's 
friends,  was  appointed  his  master  of  the  horse.  Then  he 
thought  that  he  could  live  with  Hippia9  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
and  that  he  might  give  horses  which  were  the  property  of  the 
state  to  Sergius  the  buffoon.  At  that  time  he  had  selected  for 
himself  to  live  in,  not  the  house  which  he  now  dishonors,  but 
that  of  Marcus  Piso.  Why  need  I  mention  his  decrees,  his  rob- 
beries, the  possessions  of  inheritances  which  were  given  him, 
and  those,  too,  which  were  seized  by  him?  What  compelled 
him ;  he  did  not  know  where  to  turn.  That  great  inheritance 
from  Lucius  Rubrius,  and  that  other  from  Lucius  Turselius, 

•  This  is  a  play  on  the  name  Hippia,  as  derived  from  ivwos,  a  horse. 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS      369 

had  not  yet  come  to  him.  He  had  not  yet  succeeded  as  an  un- 
expected heir  to  the  place  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius,  and  of  many 
others  who  were  absent.  He  was  forced  to  live  like  a  robber, 
having  nothing  beyond  what  he  could  plunder  from  others. 

However,  we  will  say  nothing  of  these  things,  which  are  acts 
of  a  more  hardy  sort  of  villany.  Let  us  speak  rather  of  his 
meaner  descriptions  of  worthlessness.  You,  with  those  jaws 
of  yours,  and  those  sides  of  yours,  and  that  strength  of  body 
suited  to  a  gladiator,  drank  such  quantities  of  wine  at  the  mar- 
riage of  Hippia,  that  you  were  forced  to  vomit  the  next  day  in 
the  sight  of  the  Roman  people.  O  action  disgraceful  not 
merely  to  see,  but  even  to  hear  of!  If  this  had  happened  to  you 
at  supper  amid  those  vast  drinking-cups  of  yours,  who  would 
not  have  thought  it  scandalous?  But  in  an  assembly  of  the 
Roman  people,  a  man  holding  a  public  office,  a  master  of  the 
horse,  to  whom  it  would  have  been  disgraceful  even  to  belch, 
vomiting  filled  his  own  bosom  and  the  whole  tribunal  with 
fragments  of  what  he  had  been  eating  reeking  with  wine.  But 
he  himself  confesses  this  among  his  other  disgraceful  acts.  Let 
us  proceed  to  his  more  splendid  offences. 

Caesar  came  back  from  Alexandria,  fortunate,  as  he  seemed 
at  least  to  himself ;  but  in  my  opinion  no  one  can  be  fortunate 
who  is  unfortunate  for  the  republic.  The  spear  was  set  up  in 
front  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Stator,  and  the  property  of  Cnaeus 
Pompeius  Magnus — (miserable  that  I  am,  for  even  now  that 
my  tears  have  ceased  to  flow,  my  grief  remains  deeply  implant- 
ed in  my  heart) — the  property,  I  say,  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  the 
Great  was  submitted  to  the  pitiless  voice  of  the  auctioneer.  On 
that  one  occasion  the  state  forgot  its  slavery,  and  groaned 
aloud ;  and  though  men's  minds  were  enslaved,  as  everything 
was  kept  under  by  fear,  still  the  groans  of  the  Roman  people 
were  free.  While  all  men  were  waiting  to  see  who  would  be  so 
impious,  who  would  be  so  mad,  who  would  be  so  declared  an 
enemy  to  gods  and  to  men  as  to  dare  to  mix  himself  up  with  that 
wicked  auction,  no  one  was  found  except  Antonius,  even 
though  there  were  plenty  of  men  collected  round  that  spear  10 
who  would  have  dared  anything  else.  One  man  alone  was 

10  The    custom    of    erecting    a    spear       the  ancient  practice  of  selling  under  a 
wherever   an   auction   was   held   is   well        spear  the  booty  acquired  in  war. 
known;   it  is  said  to  have  arisen  from 

24 


37° 


CICERO 


found  to  dare  to  do  that  which  the  audacity  of  everyone  else  had 
shrunk  from  and  shuddered  at.  Were  you,  then,  seized  with 
such  stupidity — or,  I  should  rather  say,  with  such  insanity — 
as  not  to  see  that  if  you,  being  of  the  rank  in  which  you  were 
born,  acted  as  a  broker  at  all,  and  above  all  as  a  broker  in  the 
case  of  Pompeius's  property,  you  would  be  execrated  and 
hated  by  the  Roman  people,  and  that  all  gods  and  all  men  must 
at  once  become  and  forever  continue  hostile  to  you  ?  But  with 
what  violence  did  that  glutton  immediately  proceed  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  property  of  that  man,  to  whose  valor  it  had  been 
owing  that  the  Roman  people  had  been  more  terrible  to  foreign 
nations,  while  its  justice  had  made  it  dearer  to  them. 

When,  therefore,  this  fellow  had  begun  to  wallow  in  the  treas- 
ures of  that  great  man,  he  began  to  exult  like  a  buffoon  in  a  play, 
who  has  lately  been  a  beggar,  and  has  become  suddenly  rich. 
But,  as  some  poet  or  other  says : 

"  Ill-gotten  gains  come  quickly  to  an  end." 

It  is  an  incredible  thing,  and  almost  a  miracle,  how  he  in  a  few, 
not  months,  but  days,  squandered  all  that  vast  wealth.  There 
was  an  immense  quantity  of  wine,  an  excessive  abundance  of 
very  valuable  plate,  much  precious  apparel,  great  quantities  of 
splendid  furniture,  and  other  magnificent  things  in  many  places, 
such  as  one  was  likely  to  see  belonging  to  a  man  who  was  not 
indeed  luxurious,  but  who  was  very  wealthy.  Of  all  this  in  a 
few  days  there  was  nothing  left.  What  Charybdis  was  ever  so 
voracious?  Charybdis,  do  I  say?  Charybdis,  if  she  existed 
at  all,  was  only  one  animal.  The  ocean,  I  swear  most  solemnly, 
appears  scarcely  capable  of  having  swallowed  up  such  numbers 
of  things  so  widely  scattered,  and  distributed  in  such  different 
places,  with  such  rapidity.  Nothing  was  shut  up,  nothing 
sealed  up,  no  list  was  made  of  anything.  Whole  storehouses 
were  abandoned  to  the  most  worthless  of  men.  Actors  seized 
on  this,  actresses  on  that ;  the  house  was  crowded  with  gam- 
blers, and  full  of  drunken  men ;  people  were  drinking  all  day, 
and  that,  too,  in  many  places ;  there  were  added  to  all  this  ex- 
pense (for  this  fellow  was  not  invariably  fortunate)  heavy  gam- 
bling losses.  You  might  see  in  the  cellars  of  the  slaves,  couches 
covered  with  the  most  richly  embroidered  counterpanes  of 
Cnaeus  Pompeius.  Wonder  not,  then,  that  all  these  things 


SECOND   ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       371 

were  so  soon  consumed.  Such  profligacy  as  that  could  have 
devoured  not  only  the  patrimony  of  one  individual,  however 
ample  it  might  have  been  (as  indeed  his  was),  but  whole  cities 
and  kingdoms. 

And  then  his  houses  and  gardens!  Oh,  the  cruel  audacity! 
Did  you  dare  to  enter  into  that  house  ?  Did  you  dare  to  cross 
that  most  sacred  threshold  ?  and  to  show  your  most  profligate 
countenance  to  the  household  gods  who  protect  that  abode? 
A  house  which  for  a  long  time  no  one  could  behold,  no  one 
could  pass  by  without  tears !  Are  you  not  ashamed  to  dwell  so 
long  in  that  house?  one  in  which,  stupid  and  ignorant  as  you 
are,  still  you  can  see  nothing  which  it  not  painful  to  you. 

When  you  behold  those  beaks  of  ships  in  the  vestibule,  and 
those  warlike  trophies,  do  you  fancy  that  you  are  entering  into 
a  house  which  belongs  to  you?  It  is  impossible.  Although 
you  are  devoid  of  all  sense  and  all  feeling — as  in  truth  you  are — 
still  you  are  acquainted  with  yourself,  and  with  your  trophies, 
and  with  your  friends.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  you,  either  wak- 
ing or  sleeping,  can  ever  act  with  quiet  sense.  It  is  impossible 
but  that,  were  you  ever  so  drunk  and  frantic — as  in  truth  you 
are — when  the  recollection  of  the  appearance  of  that  illustrious 
man  comes  across  you,  you  should  be  roused  from  sleep  by  your 
fears,  and  often  stirred  up  to  madness  if  awake.  I  pity  even 
the  walls  and  the  roof.  For  what  had  that  house  ever  beheld 
except  what  was  modest,  except  what  proceeded  from  the 
purest  principles  and  from  the  most  virtuous  practice?  For 
that  man  was,  O  conscript  fathers,  as  you  yourselves  know,  not 
only  illustrious  abroad,  but  also  admirable  at  home ;  and  not 
more  praiseworthy  for  his  exploits  in  foreign  countries,  than  for 
his  domestic  arrangements.  Now  in  his  house  every  bed- 
chamber is  a  brothel,  and  every  dining-room  a  cookshop.  Al- 
though he  denies  this :  Do  not,  do  not  make  inquiries.  He  is 
become  economical.  He  desired  that  mistress  of  his  to  take 
possession  of  whatever  belonged  to  her,  according  to  the  laws 
of  the  Twelve  Tables.  He  has  taken  his  keys  from  her,  and 
turned  her  out  of  doors.  What  a  well-tried  citizen !  of  what 
proved  virtue  is  he !  the  most  honorable  passage  in  whose  life 
is  the  one  when  he  divorced  himself  from  this  actress. 

But  how  constantly  does  he  harp  on  the  expression  "  the 
consul  Antonius  "  !  This  amounts  to  say  "  that  most  de- 


372 


CICERO 


bauched  consul,"  "  that  most  worthless  of  men,  the  consul." 
For  what  else  is  Antonius?  For  if  any  dignity  were  implied 
in  the  name,  then,  I  imagine,  your  grandfather  would  some- 
times have  called  himself  "  the  consul  Antonius."  But  he 
never  did.  My  colleague,  too,  your  own  uncle,  would  have 
called  himself  so.  Unless  you  are  the  only  Antonius.  But  I 
pass  over  those  offences  which  have  no  peculiar  connection 
with  the  part  you  took  in  harassing  the  republic;  I  return  to 
that  in  which  you  bore  so  principal  a  share — that  is,  to  the  civil 
war ;  and  it  is  mainly  owing  to  you  that  that  was  originated, 
and  brought  to  a  head,  and  carried  on. 

Though  you  yourself  took  no  personal  share  in  it,  partly 
through  timidity,  partly  through  profligacy,  you  had  tasted,  or 
rather  had  sucked  in,  the  blood  of  fellow-citizens :  you  had  been 
in  the  battle  of  Pharsalia  as  a  leader;  you  had  slain  Lucius 
Domitius,  a  most  illustrious  and  high-born  man ;  you  had  pur- 
sued and  put  to  death  in  the  most  barbarous  manner  many  men 
who  had  escaped  from  the  battle,  and  whom  Caesar  would  per- 
haps have  saved,  as  he  did  some  others. 

And  after  having  performed  these  exploits,  what  was  the  rea- 
son why  you  did  not  follow  Caesar  into  Africa ;  especially  when 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  war  was  still  remaining  ?  And  accord- 
ingly, what  place  did  you  obtain  about  Caesar's  person  after  his 
return  from  Africa  ?  What  was  your  rank  ?  He  whose  quaes- 
tor you  had  been  when  general,  whose  master  of  the  horse 
when  he  was  dictator,  to  whom  you  had  been  the  chief 
cause  of  war,  the  chief  instigator  of  cruelty,  the  sharer  of  his 
plunder,  his  son,  as  you  yourself  said,  by  inheritance,  proceeded 
against  you  for  the  money  which  you  owed  for  the  house  and 
gardens,  and  for  the  other  property  which  you  had  bought  at 
that  sale.  At  first  you  answered  fiercely  enough;  and  that  I 
may  not  appear  prejudiced  against  you  in  every  particular,  you 
used  a  tolerably  just  and  reasonable  argument.  "  What,  does 
Caius  Caesar  demand  money  of  me  ?  why  should  he  do  so,  any 
more  than  I  should  claim  it  of  him  ?  Was  he  victorious  with- 
out my  assistance?  No;  and  he  never  could  have  been.  It 
was  I  who  supplied  him  with  a  pretext  for  civil  war ;  it  was  I 
who  proposed  mischievous  laws;  it  was  I  who  took  up  arms 
against  the  consuls  and  generals  of  the  Roman  people,  against 
the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,  against  the  gods  of  the  coun- 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       373 

try,  against  its  altars  and  hearths,  against  the  country  itself. 
Has  he  conquered  for  himself  alone?  Why  should  not  those 
men  whose  common  work  the  achievement  is,  have  the  booty 
also  in  common?  You  were  only  claiming  your  right,  but 
what  had  that  to  do  with  it  ?  He  was  the  more  powerful  of  the 
two.  % 

Therefore,  stopping  all  your  expostulations,  he  sent  his  sol- 
diers to  you,  and  to  your  sureties ;  when  all  on  a  sudden  out 
came  that  splendid  catalogue  of  yours.  How  men  did  laugh ! 
That  there  should  be  so  vast  a  catalogue,  that  there  should  be 
such  a  numerous  and  various  list  of  possessions,  of  all  of  which, 
with  the  exception  of  a  portion  of  Misenum,  there  was  nothing 
which  the  man  who  was  putting  them  up  to  sale  could  call  his 
own.  And  what  a  miserable  sight  was  the  auction.  A  little 
apparel  of  Pompeius's,  and  that  stained ;  a  few  silver  vessels 
belonging  to  the  same  man,  all  battered ;  some  slaves  in  wretch- 
ed condition ;  so  that  we  grieved  that  there  was  anything  re- 
maining to  be  seen  of  these  miserable  relics.  This  auction, 
however,  the  heirs  of  Lucius  Rubrius  prevented  from  proceed- 
ing, being  armed  with  a  decree  of  Caesar  to  that  effect.  The 
spendthrift  was  embarrassed.  He  did  not  know  which  way  to 
turn.  It  was  at  this  very  time  that  an  assassin  sent  by  him  was 
said  to  have  been  detected  with  a  dagger  in  the  house  of  Caesar. 
And  of  this  Caesar  himself  complained  in  the  Senate,  inveighing 
openly  against  you.  Caesar  departs  to  Spain,  having  granted 
you  a  few  days'  delay  for  making  the  payment,  on  account  of 
your  poverty.  Even  then  you  do  not  follow  him.  Had  so 
good  a  gladiator  as  you  retired  from  business  so  early?  Can 
anyone,  then,  fear  a  man  who  was  as  timid  as  this  man  in  up- 
holding his  party,  that  is,  in  upholding  his  own  fortunes  ? 

After  some  time  he  at  last  went  into  Spain ;  but,  as  he  says, 
he  could  not  arrive  there  in  safety.  How,  then,  did  Dolabella 
manage  to  arrive  there  ?  Either,  O  Antonius,  that  cause  ought 
never  to  have  been  undertaken,  or  when  you  had  undertaken  it, 
it  should  have  been  maintained  to  the  end.  Thrice  did  Caesar 
fight  against  his  fellow-citizens ;  in  Thessaly,  in  Africa,  and  in 
Spain.  Dolabella  was  present  at  all  these  battles.  In  the  bat- 
tle in  Spain  he  even  received  a  wound.  If  you  ask  my  opinion, 
I  wish  he  had  not  been  there.  But  still,  if  his  design  at  first  was 
blamable,  his  consistency  and  firmness  were  praiseworthy. 


374  CICERO 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  you  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  children 
of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  sought  to  be  restored  to  their  country. 
Well,  this  concerned  the  common  interests  of  the  whole  party. 
Besides  that,  they  sought  to  recover  their  household  gods,  the 
gods  of  their  country,  their  altars,  their  hearths,  the  tutelar  gods 
of  their  family ;  all  of  which  you  had  seized  upon.  And  when 
they  sought  to  recover  those  things  by  force  of  arms  which  be- 
longed to  them  by  the  laws,  who  was  it  most  natural  (although 
in  unjust  and  unnatural  proceedings  what  can  there  be  that  is 
natural  ?) — still,  who  was  it  most  natural  to  expect  would  fight 
against  the  children  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  ?  Who  ?  Why,  you 
who  had  bought  their  property.  Were  you  at  Narbo  to  be  sick 
over  the  tables  of  your  entertainers,  while  Dolabella  was  fight- 
ing your  battles  in  Spain  ? 

And  what  return  was  that  of  yours  from  Narbo  ?  He  even 
asked  why  I  had  returned  so  suddenly  from  my  expedition. 
I  have  just  briefly  explained  to  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  the 
reason  of  my  return.  I  was  desirous,  if  I  could,  to  be  of  service 
to  the  republic  even  before  the  first  of  January.  For,  as  to  your 
question,  how  I  had  returned ;  in  the  first  place,  I  returned  by 
daylight,  not  in  the  dark;  in  the  second  place,  I  returned  in 
shoes,  and  in  my  Roman  gown,  not  in  any  Gallic  slippers,  or 
barbarian  mantle.  And  even  now  you  keep  looking  at  me; 
and,  as  it  seems,  with  great  anger.  Surely  you  would  be  recon- 
ciled to  me  if  you  knew  how  ashamed  I  am  of  your  worthless- 
ness,  which  you  yourself  are  not  ashamed  of.  Of  all  the  profli- 
gate conduct  of  all  the  world,  I  never  saw,  I  never  heard  of  any 
more  shameful  than  yours.  You,  who  fancied  yourself  a  mas- 
ter of  the  horse,  when  you  were  standing  for,  or  I  should  rather 
say  begging  for  the  consulship  for  the  ensuing  year,  ran  in 
Gallic  slippers  and  a  barbarian  mantle  about  the  municipal 
towns  and  colonies  of  Gaul  from  which  we  used  to  demand  the 
consulship  when  the  consulship  was  stood  for  and  not  begged 
for. 

But  mark  now  the  trifling  character  of  the  fellow.  When 
about  the  tenth  hour  of  the  day  he  had  arrived  at  Red  Rocks, 
he  skulked  into  a  little  petty  wine-shop,  and,  hiding  there,  kept 
on  drinking  till  evening.  And  from  thence  getting  into  a  gig 
and  being  driven  rapidly  to  the  city,  he  came  to  his  own  house 
with  his  head  veiled.  "  Who  are  you?  "  says  the  porter.  "An 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       375 

express  from  Marcus."  He  is  at  once  taken  to  the  woman  for 
whose  sake  he  had  come;  and  he  delivered  the  letter  to  her. 
And  when  she  had  read  it  with  tears  (for  it  was  written  in  a 
very  amorous  style,  but  the  main  subject  of  the  letter  was  that 
he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  that  actress  for  the  future ; 
that  he  had  discarded  all  his  love  for  her,  and  transferred  it  to 
his  correspondent),  when  she,  I  say,  wept  plentifully,  this  soft- 
hearted man  could  bear  it  no  longer ;  he  uncovered  his  head  and 
threw  himself  on  her  neck.  Oh,  the  worthless  man  (for  what 
else  can  I  call  him  ?  there  is  no  more  suitable  expression  for  me 
to  use) !  was  it  for  this  that  you  disturbed  the  city  by  nocturnal 
alarms,  and  Italy  with  fears  of  many  days'  duration,  in  order 
that  you  might  show  yourself  unexpectedly,  and  that  a  woman 
might  see  you  before  she  hoped  to  do  so  ?  And  he  had  at  home 
a  pretence  of  love ;  but  out  of  doors  a  cause  more  discreditable 
still ;  namely,  lest  Lucius  Plancus  should  sell  up  his  sureties. 
But  after  you  had  been  produced  in  the  assembly  by  one  of  the 
tribunes  of  the  people,  and  had  replied  that  you  had  come  on 
your  own  private  business,  you  made  even  the  people  full  of 
jokes  against  you.  But,  however,  we  have  said  too  much  about 
trifles.  Let  us  come  to  more  important  subjects. 

You  went  a  great  distance  to  meet  Caesar  on  his  return  from 
Spain.  You  went  rapidly,  you  returned  rapidly,  in  order  that 
we  might  see  that,  if  you  were  not  brave,  you  were  at  least 
active.  You  again  became  intimate  with  him ;  I  am  sure  I  do 
not  know  how.  Caesar  had  this  peculiar  characteristic ;  who- 
ever he  knew  to  be  utterly  ruined  by  debt,  and  needy,  even  if  he 
knew  him  also  to  be  an  audacious  and  worthless  man,  he  will- 
ingly admitted  him  to  his  intimacy.  You  then,  being  admira- 
bly recommended  to  him  by  these  circumstances,  were  ordered 
to  be  appointed  consul,  and  that,  too,  as  his  own  colleague.  I 
do  not  make  any  complaint  against  Dolabella,  who  was  at  that 
time  acting  under  compulsion,  and  was  cajoled  and  deceived. 
But  who  is  there  who  does  not  know  with  what  great  perfidy 
both  of  you  treated  Dolabella  in  that  business  ?  Caesar  induced 
him  to  stand  for  the  consulship.  After  having  promised  it  to 
him,  and  pledged  himself  to  aid  him,  he  prevented  his  getting 
it,  and  transferred  it  to  himself.  And  you  indorsed  his  treach- 
ery with  your  own  eagerness. 

The  first  of  January  arrives.     We  are  convened  in  the  Senate. 


376 


CICERO 


Dolabella  inveighed  against  him  with  much  more  fluency  and 
premeditation  than  I  am  doing  now.  And  what  things  were 
they  which  he  said  in  his  anger,  O  ye  good  gods !  First  of  all, 
after  Caesar  had  declared  that  before  he  departed  he  would  order 
Dolabella  to  be  made  consul  (and  they  deny  that  he  was  a  king 
who  was  always  doing  and  saying  something  of  this  sort) — 
but  after  Caesar  had  said  this,  then  this  virtuous  augur  said  that 
he  was  invested  with  a  pontificate  of  that  sort  that  he  was  able, 
by  means  of  the  auspices,  either  to  hinder  or  to  vitiate  the  comi- 
tia,  just  as  he  pleased;  and  he  declared  that  he  would  do  so. 
And  here,  in  the  first  place,  remark  the  incredible  stupidity  of 
the  man.  For  what  do  you  mean  ?  Could  you  not  just  as  well 
have  done  what  you  said  you  had  now  the  power  to  do  by  the 
privileges  with  which  that  pontificate  had  invested  you,  even 
if  you  were  not  an  augur,  if  you  were  consul?  Perhaps  you 
could  even  do  it  more  easily.  For  we  augurs  have  only  the 
power  of  announcing  that  the  auspices  are  being  observed,  but 
the  consuls  and  other  magistrates  have  the  right  also  of  observ- 
ing them  whenever  they  choose.  Be  it  so.  You  said  this  out 
of  ignorance.  For  one  must  not  demand  prudence  from  a  man 
who  is  never  sober.  But  still  remark  his  impudence.  Many 
months  before,  he  said  in  the  Senate  that  he  would  either  pre- 
vent the  comitia  from  assembling  for  the  election  of  Dolabella 
by  means  of  the  auspices,  or  that  he  would  do  what  he  actually 
did  do.  Can  anyone  divine  beforehand  what  defect  there  will 
be  in  the  auspices,  except  the  man  who  has  already  determined 
to  observe  the  heavens  ?  which  in  the  first  place  it  is  forbidden 
by  law  to  do  at  the  time  of  the  comitia.  And  if  anyone  has 
been  observing  the  heavens,  he  is  bound  to  give  notice  of  it, 
not  after  the  comitia  are  assembled,  but  before  they  are  held. 
But  this  man's  ignorance  is  joined  to  impudence,  nor  does  he 
know  what  an  augur  ought  to  know,  nor  do  what  a  modest  man 
ought  to  do.  And  just  recollect  the  whole  of  his  conduct  dur- 
ing his  consulship  from  that  day  up  to  the  ides  of  March.  What 
lictor  was  ever  so  humble,  so  abject?  He  himself  had  no 
power  at  all ;  he  begged  everything  of  others ;  and  thrusting  his 
head  into  the  hind  part  of  his  litter,  he  begged  favors  of  his  col- 
leagues, to  sell  them  himself  afterward. 

Behold,  the  day  of  the  comitia  for  the  election  of  Dolabella 
arrives.     The  prerogative  century  draws  its  lot.     He  is  quiet. 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       377 

The  vote  is  declared ;  he  is  still  silent.  The  first  class  is  called.11 
Its  vote  is  declared.  Then,  as  is  the  usual  course,  the  votes  are 
announced.  Then  the  second  class.  And  all  this  is  done  faster 
than  I  have  told  it.  When  the  business  is  over,  that  excellent 
augur  (you  would  say  he  must  be  Caius  Laelius)  says,  "  We  ad- 
journ it  to  another  day."  Oh,  the  monstrous  impudence  of 
such  a  proceeding!  What  had  you  seen?  what  had  you  per- 
ceived? what  had  you  heard?  For  you  did  not  say  that  you 
had  been  observing  the  heavens,  and  indeed  you  do  not  say  so 
this  day.  That  defect,  then,  has  arisen,  which  you  on  the  first 
of  January  had  already  foreseen  would  arise,  and  which  you  had 
predicted  so  long  before.  '  Therefore,  in  truth,  you  have  made  a 
false  declaration  respecting  the  auspices,  to  your  own  great 
misfortune,  I  hope,  rather  than  to  that  of  the  republic.  You 
laid  the  Roman  people  under  the  obligations  of  religion ;  you 
as  augur  interrupted  an  augur;  you  as  consul  interrupted  a 
consul  by  a  false  declaration  concerning  the  auspices. 

I  will  say  no  more,  lest  I  should  seem  to  be  pulling  to  pieces 
the  acts  of  Dolabella ;  which  must  inevitably  some  time  or  other 
be  brought  before  our  college.  But  take  notice  of  the  arro- 
gance and  insolence  of  the  fellow.  As  long  as  you  please,  Dol- 
abella is  a  consul  irregularly  elected ;  again,  while  you  please, 
he  is  a  consul  elected  with  all  proper  regard  to  the  auspices. 
If  it  means  nothing  when  an  augur  gives  this  notice  in  those 
words  in  which  you  gave  notice,  then  confess  that  you,  when 
you  said,  "  We  adjourn  this  to  another  day,"  were  not  sober. 
But  if  those  words  have  any  meaning,  then  I,  an  augur,  demand 
of  my  colleague  to  know  what  that  meaning  is. 

But  lest  by  any  chance,  while  enumerating  his  numerous 
exploits,  our  speech  should  pass  over  the  finest  action  of  Mar- 
cus Antonius,  let  us  come  to  the  Lupercalia. 

He  does  not  dissemble,  O  conscript  fathers ;  it  is  plain  that 
he  is  agitated ;  he  perspires ;  he  turns  pale.  Let  him  do  what 
he  pleases,  provided  he  is  not  sick,  and  does  not  behave  as  he 
did  in  the  Minucian  colonnade.  What  defence  can  be  made  for 
such  beastly  behavior?  I  wish  to  hear,  that  I  may  see  the  fruit 
of  those  high  wages  of  that  rhetorician,  of  that  land  given  in 
Leontini.  Your  colleague  was  sitting  in  the  rostra,  clothed  in 
purple  robe,  on  a  golden  chair,  wearing  a  crown.  You  mount 

"  There  seems  some  corruption  here.  Orellius  apparently  thinks  the  case 
hopeless. 


378  CICERO 

the  steps ;  you  approach  his  chair  (if  you  were  a  priest  of  Pan, 
you  ought  to  have  recollected  that  you  were  consul  too) ;  you 
display  a  diadem.  There  is  a  groan  over  the  whole  forum. 
Where  did  the  diadem  come  from  ?  For  you  had  not  picked  it 
up  when  lying  on  the  ground,  but  you  had  brought  it  from 
home  with  you,  a  premeditated  and  deliberately  planned  wick- 
edness. You  placed  the  diadem  on  his  head  amidst  the  groans 
of  the  people ;  he  rejected  it  amidst  great  applause.  You  then 
alone,  O  wicked  man,  were  found,  both  to  advise  the  assump- 
tion of  kingly  power,  and  to  wish  to  have  him  for  your  master 
who  was  your  colleague ;  and  also  to  try  what  the  Roman  peo- 
ple might  be  able  to  bear  and  to  endure.  Moreover,  you  even 
sought  to  move  his  pity;  you  threw  yourself  at  his  feet  as  a 
supplicant ;  begging  for  what  ?  to  be  a  slave  ?  You  might  beg 
it  for  yourself,  when  you  had  lived  in  such  a  way  from  the  time 
that  you  were  a  boy  that  you  could  bear  everything,  and  would 
find  no  difficulty  in  being  a  slave;  but  certainly  you  had  no 
commission  from  the  Roman  people  to  try  for  such  a  thing  for 
them. 

Oh,  how  splendid  was  that  eloquence  of  yours,  when  you 
harangued  the  people  stark  naked !  What  could  be  more  foul 
than  this  ?  more  shameful  than  this  ?  more  deserving  of  every 
sort  of  punishment?  Are  you  waiting  for  me  to  prick  you 
more  ?  This  that  I  am  saying  must  tear  you  and  bring  blood 
enough  if  you  have  any  feeling  at  all.  I  am  afraid  that  I  may  be 
detracting  from  the  glory  of  some  most  eminent  men.  Still  my 
indignation  shall  find  a  voice.  What  can  be  more  scandalous 
than  for  that  man  to  live  who  placed  a  diadem  on  a  man's  head, 
when  everyone  confesses  that  that  man  was  deservedly  slain 
who  rejected  it?  And,  moreover,  he  caused  it  to  be  recorded 
in  the  annals,  under  the  head  of  Lupercalia,  "  That  Marcus  An- 
tonius,  the  consul,  by  command  of  the  people,  had  offered  the 
kingdom  to  Caius  Caesar,  perpetual  dictator;  and  that  Caesar 
had  refused  to  accept  it."  I  now  am  not  much  surprised  at 
your  seeking  to  disturb  the  general  tranquillity ;  at  your  hating 
not  only  the  city  but  the  light  of  day  ;  and  at  your  living  with  a 
pack  of  abandoned  robbers,  disregarding  the  day,  and  yet  re- 
garding nothing  beyond  the  day.12  For  where  can  you  be  safe 

a  The  Latin  is,  "  non   solum  de  die,        commentators   explain,   "  De   die   is  to 
sed  etiam  in  diem,   vivere;"   which  the        feast  every  day  and  all  day.     Banquets 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS      379 

in  peace?  What  place  can  there  be  for  you  where  laws  and 
courts  of  justice  have  sway,  both  of  which  you,  as  far  as  in  you 
lay,  destroyed  by  the  substitution  of  kingly  power  ?  Was  it  for 
this  that  Lucius  Tarquinius  was  driven  out ;  that  Spurius  Cas- 
sius,  and  Spurius  Maelius,  and  Marcus  Manlius  were  slain ;  that 
many  years  afterward  a  king  might  be  established  at  Rome  by 
Marcus  Antonius,  though  the  bare  idea  was  impiety?  How- 
ever, let  us  return  to  the  auspices. 

With  respect  to  all  the  things  which  Caesar  was  intending  to 
do  in  the  Senate  on  the  ides  of  March,  I  ask  whether  you  have 
done  anything?  I  heard,  indeed,  that  you  had  come  down  pre- 
pared, because  you  thought  that  I  intended  to  speak  about  your 
having  made  a  false  statement  respecting  the  auspices,  though 
it  was  still  necessary  for  us  to  respect  them.  The  fortune  of  the 
Roman  people  saved  us  from  that  day.  Did  the  death  of  Caesar 
also  put  an  end  to  your  opinion  respecting  the  auspices  ?  But 
I  have  come  to  mention  that  occasion  which  must  be  allowed 
to  precede  those  matters  which  I  had  begun  to  discuss.  What 
a  flight  was  that  of  yours !  What  alarm  was  yours  on  that 
memorable  day !  How,  from  the  consciousness  of  your  wick- 
edness, did  you  despair  of  your  life !  How,  while  flying,  were 
you  enabled  secretly  to  get  home  by  the  kindness  of  those  men 
who  wished  to  save  you,  thinking  you  would  show  more  sense 
than  you  do!  Oh,  how  vain  have  at  all  times  been  my  too  true 
predictions  of  the  future !  I  told  those  deliverers  of  ours  in  the 
Capitol,  when  they  wished  me  to  go  to  you  to  exhort  you  to 
defend  the  republic,  that  as  long  as  you  were  in  fear  you  would 
promise  everything,  but  that  as  soon  as  you  had  emancipated 
yourself  from  alarm  you  would  be  yourself  again.  Therefore, 
while  the  rest  of  the  men  of  consular  rank  were  going  back- 
ward and  forward  to  you,  I  adhered  to  my  opinion,  nor  did  I 
see  you  at  all  that  day,  or  the  next ;  nor  did  I  think  it  possible 
for  an  alliance  between  virtuous  citizens  and  a  most  unprinci- 
pled enemy  to  be  made,  so  as  to  last,  by  any  treaty  or  engage- 
ment whatever.  The  third  day  I  came  into  the  temple  of  Tel- 
lus,  even  then  very  much  against  my  will,  as  armed  men  were 
blockading  all  the  approaches.  What  a  day  was  that  for  you, 
O  Marcus  Antonius !  Although  you  showed  yourself  all  on  a 

de  die  are  those  which  begin  before  the        diem  is  to  live  so  as  to  have  no  thought 
regular  hour."    (Like  Horace's  "  Partern        for  the  future." — Graevius. 
solido   demere   de  die.")     "To   live   in 


380  CICERO 

sudden  an  enemy  to  me ;  still  I  pity  you  for  having  envied  your- 
self. 

What  a  man,  O  ye  immortal  gods !  and  how  great  a  man 
might  you  have  been,  if  you  had  been  able  to  preserve  the  in- 
clination you  displayed  that  day;  we  should  still  have  peace 
which  was  made  then  by  the  pledge  of  a  hostage,  a  boy  of  noble 
birth,  the  grandson  of  Marcus  Bambalio.  Although  it  was 
fear  that  was  then  making  you  a  good  citizen,  which  is  never  a 
lasting  teacher  of  duty ;  your  own  audacity,  which  never  departs 
from  you  as  long  as  you  are  free  from  fear,  has  made  you  a 
worthless  one.  Although  even  at  that  time,  when  they  thought 
you  an  excellent  man,  though  I  indeed  differed  from  that  opin- 
ion, you  behaved  with  the  greatest  wickedness  while  presiding 
at  the  funeral  of  the  tyrant,  if  that  ought  to  be  called  a  funeral. 
All  that  fine  panegyric  was  yours,  that  commiseration  was 
yours,  that  exhortation  was  yours.  It  was  you — you,  I  say — 
who  hurled  those  firebrands,  both  those  with  which  your  friend 
himself  was  nearly  burned,  and  those  by  which  the  house  of 
Lucius  Bellienus  was  set  on  fire  and  destroyed.  It  was  you 
who  let  loose  those  attacks  of  abandoned  men,  slaves  for  the 
most  part,  which  we  repelled  by  violence  and  our  own  personal 
exertions;  it  was  you  who  set  them  on  to  attack  our  houses. 
And  yet  you,  as  if  you  had  wiped  off  all  the  soot  and  smoke  in 
the  ensuing  days,  carried  those  excellent  resolutions  in  the  Cap- 
itol, that  no  document  conferring  any  exemption,  or  granting 
any  favor,  should  be  published  after  the  ides  of  March.  You 
recollect  yourself,  what  you  said  about  the  exiles;  you  know 
what  you  said  about  the  exemption ;  but  the  best  thing  of  all 
was,  that  you  forever  abolished  the  name  of  the  dictatorship  in 
the  republic.  Which  act  appeared  to  show  that  you  had  con- 
ceived such  a  hatred  of  kingly  power  that  you  took  away  all  fear 
of  it  for  the  future,  on  account  of  him  who  had  been  the  last 
dictator. 

To  other  men  the  republic  now  seemed  established,  but  it  did 
not  appear  so  at  all  to  me,  as  I  was  afraid  of  every  sort  of  ship- 
wreck, as  long  as  you  were  at  the  helm.  Have  I  been  deceived  ? 
or,  was  it  possible  for  that  man  long  to  continue  unlike  himself? 
While  you  were  all  looking  on,  documents  were  fixed  up  over 
the  whole  Capitol,  and  exemptions  were  being  sold,  not  merely 
to  individuals,  but  to  entire  states.  The  freedom  of  the  city 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS  ANTONIUS       381 

was  also  being  given  now  not  to  single  persons  only,  but  to 
whole  provinces.  Therefore,  if  these  acts  are  to  stand — and 
stand  they  cannot  if  the  republic  stands  too — then,  O  conscript 
fathers,  you  have  lost  whole  provinces ;  and  not  the  revenues 
only,  but  the  actual  empire  of  the  Roman  people  has  been  di- 
minished by  a  market  this  man  held  in  his  own  house. 

Where  are  the  seven  hundred  millions  of  sesterces  which 
were  entered  in  the  account-books  which  are  in  the  temple  of 
Ops  ?  a  sum  lamentable  indeed,  as  to  the  means  by  which  it  was 
procured,  but  still  one  which,  if  it  were  not  restored  to  those  to 
whom  it  belonged,  might  save  us  from  taxes.  And  how  was  it, 
that  when  you  owed  forty  millions  of  sesterces  on  the  fifteenth 
of  March,  you  had  ceased  to  owe  them  by  the  first  of  April? 
Those  things  are  quite  countless  which  were  purchased  of  dif- 
ferent people,  not  without  your  knowledge ;  but  there  was  one 
excellent  decree  posted  up  in  the  Capitol  affecting  king  Deiot- 
arus,  a  most  devoted  friend  to  the  Roman  people.  And  when 
that  decree  was  posted  up,  there  was  no  one  who,  amid  all  his 
indignation,  could  restrain  his.  laughter.  For  who  ever  was  a 
more  bitter  enemy  to  another  than  Caesar  was  to  Deiotarus? 
He  was  as  hostile  to  him  as  he  was  to  this  order,  to  the  eques- 
trian order,  to  the  people  of  Massilia,  and  to  all  men  whom  he 
knew  to  look  on  the  republic  of  the  Roman  people  with  attach- 
ment. But  this  man,  who  neither  present  nor  absent  could 
ever  obtain  from  him  any  favor  or  justice  while  he  was  alive, 
became  quite  an  influential  man  with  him  when  he  was  dead. 
When  present  with  him  in  his  house  he  had  called  for  him 
though  he  was  his  host,  he  had  made  him  give  in  his  accounts 
of  his  revenue,  he  had  exacted  money  from  him ;  he  had  estab- 
lished one  of  his  Greek  retainers  in  his  tetrarchy,  and  he  had 
taken  Armenia  from  him  which  had  been  given  to  him  by  the 
Senate.  While  he  was  alive  he  deprived  him  of  all  these  things  ; 
now  that  he  is  dead,  he  gives  them  back  again.  And  in  what 
words?  At  one  time  he  says,  "  that  it  appears  to  him  to  be  just. 
.  .  ."  at  another,  "  that  it  appears  not  to  be  unjust.  .  .  ." 
What  a  strange  combination  of  words !  But  while  alive  (I 
know  this,  for  I  always  supported  Deiotarus,  who  was  at  a  dis- 
tance), he  never  said  that  anything  which  we  were  asking  for, 
for  him,  appeared  just  to  him.  A  bond  for  ten  millions  of  ses- 
terces was  entered  into  in  the  women's  apartment  (where  many 


382  CICERO 

things  have  been  sold,  and  are  still  being  sold),  by  his  ambassa- 
dors, well-meaning  men,  but  timid  and  inexperienced  in  busi- 
ness, without  my  advice  or  that  of  the  rest  of  the  hereditary 
friends  of  the  monarch.  And  I  advise  you  to  consider  carefully 
what  you  intend  to  do  with  reference  to  this  bond.  For  the 
king  himself,  of  his  own  accord,  without  waiting  for  any  of 
Caesar's  memoranda,  the  moment  that  he  heard  of  his  death, 
recovered  his  own  rights  by  his  own  courage  and  energy.  He, 
like  a  wise  man,  knew  that  this  was  always  the  law,  that  those 
men  from  whom  the  things  which  tyrants  had  taken  away  had 
been  taken,  might  recover  them  when  the  tyrants  were  slain. 
No  lawyer,  therefore,  not  even  he  who  is  your  lawyer  and  yours 
alone,  and  by  whose  advice  you  do  all  these  things,  will  say  that 
anything  is  due  to  you  by  virtue  of  that  bond  for  those  things 
which  had  been  recovered  before  that  bond  was  executed.  For 
he  did  not  purchase  them  of  you ;  but,  before  you  undertook  to 
sell  him  his  own  property,  he  had  taken  possession  of  it.  He 
was  a  man — we,  indeed,  deserve  to  be  despised,  who  hate  the 
author  of  the  actions,  but  uphold  the  actions  themselves. 

Why  need  I  mention  the  countless  mass  of  papers,  the  innum- 
erable autographs  which  have  been  brought  forward?  writings 
of  which  there  are  imitators  who  sell  their  forgeries  as  openly 
as  if  they  were  gladiator's  play-bills.  Therefore,  there  are  now 
such  heaps  of  money  piled  up  in  that  man's  house,  that  it  is 
weighed  out  instead  of  being  counted.13  But  how  blind  is  av- 
arice !  Lately,  too,  a  document  has  been  posted  up  by  which 
the  most  wealthy  cities  of  the  Cretans  are  released  from  tribute ; 
and  by  which  it  is  ordained  that  after  the  expiration  of  the  con- 
sulship of  Marcus  Brutus,  Crete  shall  cease  to  be  a  province. 
Are  you  in  your  senses?  Ought  you  not  to  be  put  in  confine- 
ment ?  Was  it  possible  for  there  really  to  be  a  decree  of  Caesar's 
exempting  Crete  after  the  departure  of  Marcus  Brutus,  when 
Brutus  had  no  connection  whatever  with  Crete  while  Caesar 
v/as  alive  ?  But  by  the  sale  of  this  decree  (that  you  may  not,  O 
conscript  fathers,  think  it  wholly  ineffectual)  you  have  lost  the 
province  of  Crete.  There  was  nothing  in  the  whole  world 
which  anyone  wanted  to  buy  that  this  fellow  was  not  ready  to 
sell. 

13  This  accidental  resemblance  to  the  incident  in  the  "  Forty  Thieves  "  in  the 
"  Arabian  Nights  "  is  curious. 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS      383 

Caesar,  too,  I  suppose,  made  the  law  about  the  exiles  which 
you  have  posted  up.  I  do  not  wish  to  press  upon  anyone  in 
misfortune ;  I  only  complain,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  return 
of  those  men  has  had  discredit  thrown  upon  it,  whose  cause 
Caesar  judged  to  be  different  from  that  of  the  rest;  and  in  the 
second  place,  I  do  not  know  why  you  do  not  mete  out  the  same 
measure  to  all.  For  there  cannot  be  more  than  three  or  four 
left.  Why  do  not  they  who  are  in  similar  misfortune  enjoy  a 
similar  degree  of  your  mercy  ?  Why  do  you  treat  them  as  you 
treated  your  uncle?  about  whom  you  refused  to  pass  a  law 
when  you  were  passing  one  about  all  the  rest ;  and  whom  at  the 
same  time  you  encouraged  to  stand  for  the  censorship,  and  in- 
stigated him  to  a  canvass,  which  excited  the  ridicule  and  the 
complaint  of  everyone. 

But  why  did  you  not  hold  that  comitia?  Was  it  because  a 
tribune  of  the  people  announced  that  there  had  been  an  ill- 
omened  flash  of  lightning  seen  ?  When  you  have  any  interest 
of  your  own  to  serve,  then  auspices  are  all  nothing ;  but  when 
it  is  only  your  friends  who  are  concerned,  then  you  become 
scrupulous.  What  more  ?  Did  you  not  also  desert  him  in  the 
matter  of  the  septemvirate ?14  "Yes,  for  he  interfered  with 
me."  What  were  you  afraid  of?  I  suppose  you  were  afraid 
that  you  would  be  able  to  refuse  him  nothing  if  he  were  restored 
to  the  ful  possession  of  his  rights.  You  loaded  him  with  every 
species  of  insult,  a  man  whom  you  ought  to  have  considered  in 
the  place  of  a  father  to  you,  if  you  had  had  any  piety  or  natural 
affection  at  all.  You  put  away  his  daughter,  your  own  cousin, 
having  already  looked  out  and  provided  yourself  beforehand 
with  another.  That  was  not  enough.  You  accused  a  most 
chaste  woman  of  misconduct.  What  can  go  beyond  this  ?  Yet 
you  were  not  content  with  this.  In  a  very  full  Senate  held  on 
the  first  of  January,  while  your  uncle  was  present,  you  dared  to 
say  that  this  was  your  reason  for  hatred  of  Dolabella,  that  you 
had  ascertained  that  he  had  committed  adultery  with  your 
cousin  and  your  wife.  Who  can  decide  whether  it  was  more 

14  The  septemviri,   at  full   length   sep-  Caesar   added   three   more,    but   that   al- 

temyiri    epulones    or    epulonum,    were  teratiqn   did   not   last.     They   formed   a 

originally    triumviri.      They    were    first  collegium,    and    were    one    of    the    four 

created  B.C.  198,  to  attend  to  the  epulum  great    religious    corporations    at    Rome 

Jovis,  and  the  banquets  given  in  honor  with  the  pontjfices,  the  augures,  and  the 

of  the  other  gods,  which  duty  had  orig-  quindecemviri.      Smith,     Dictionary    of 

inally  belonged  to  the  pontifices.    Julius  Antiquities,  v.  Epulones. 


384  CICERO 

shameless  of  you  to  make  such  profligate  and  such  impious 
statements  against  that  unhappy  woman  in  the  Senate,  or  more 
wicked  to  make  them  against  Dolabella,  or  more  scandalous  to 
make  them  in  the  presence  of  her  father,  or  more  cruel  to  make 
them  at  all  ? 

However,  let  us  return  to  the  subject  of  Caesar's  written 
papers.  How  were  they  verified  by  you?  For  the  acts  of 
Caesar  were  for  peace's  sake  confirmed  by  the  Senate ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  acts  which  Caesar  had  really  done,  not  those  which  An- 
tonius  said  that  Caesar  had  done.  Where  do  all  these  come 
from  ?  By  whom  are  they  produced  and  vouched  for  ?  If  they 
are  false,  why  are  they  ratified  ?  If  they  are  true,  why  are  they 
sold?  But  the  vote  which  was  come  to  enjoined  you,  after  the 
first  of  June,  to  make  an  examination  of  Caesar's  acts  with  the 
assistance  of  a  council.  What  council  did  you  consult?  whom 
did  you  ever  invite  to  help  you  ?  what  was  the  first  of  June  that 
you  waited  for?  Was  it  that  day  on  which  you,  having  trav- 
elled all  through  the  colonies  where  the  veterans  were  settled, 
returned  escorted  by  a  band  of  armed  men  ? 

Oh,  what  a  splendid  progress  of  yours  was  that  in  the  months 
of  April  and  May,  when  you  attempted  even  to  lead  a  colony  to 
Capua !  How  you  made  your  escape  from  thence,  or  rather 
how  you  barely  made  your  escape,  we  all  know.  And  now  you 
are  still  threatening  that  city.  I  wish  you  would  try,  and  we 
should  not  then  be  forced  to  say  "  barely."  However,  what  a 
splendid  progress  of  yours  that  was !  Why  need  I  mention 
your  preparations  for  banquets,  why  your  frantic  hard  drink- 
ing? Those  things  are  only  an  injury  to  yourself;  these  are 
injuries  to  us.  We  thought  that  a  great  blow  was  inflicted  on 
the  republic  when  the  Campanian  district  was  released  from 
the  payment  of  taxes,  in  order  to  be  given  to  the  soldiery ;  but 
you  have  divided  it  among  your  partners  in  drunkenness  and 
gambling.  I  tell  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  a  lot  of  buffoons 
and  actresses  have  been  settled  in  the  district  of  Campania. 
Why  should  I  now  complain  of  what  has  been  done  in  the  dis- 
trict o{  Leontini  ?  Although  formerly  these  lands  of  Campania 
and  Leontini  were  considered  part  of  the  patrimony  of  the 
Roman  people,  and  were  productive  of  great  revenue,  and  very 
fertile.  You  gave  your  physician  three  thousand  acres ;  what 
would  you  have  done  if  he  had  cured  you?  and  two  thousand 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       385 

to  your  master  of  oratory ;  what  would  you  have  done  if  he  had 
been  able  to  make  you  eloquent?  However,  let  us  return  to 
your  progress,  and  to  Italy. 

You  led  a  colony  to  Casilinum,  a  place  to  which  Caesar  had 
previously  led  one.  You  did  indeed  consult  me  by  letter  about 
the  colony  of  Capua  (but  I  should  have  given  you  the  same 
answer  about  Casilinum),  whether  you  could  legally  lead  a  new 
colony  to  a  place  where  there  was  a  colony  already.  I  said  that 
a  new  colony  could  not  be  legally  conducted  to  an  existing  col- 
ony, which  had  been  established  with  a  due  observance  of  the 
auspices,  as  long  as  it  remained  in  a  flourishing  state;  but  I 
wrote  you  word  that  new  colonists  might  be  enrolled  among 
the  old  ones.  But  you,  elated  and  insolent,  disregarding  all 
the  respect  due  to  the  auspices,  led  a  colony  to  Casilinum, 
whither  one  had  been  previously  led  a  few  years  before ;  in  order 
to  erect  your  standard  there,  and  to  mark  out  the  line  of  the  new 
colony  with  a  plough.  And  by  that  plough  you  almost  grazed 
the  gate  of  Capua,  so  as  to  diminish  the  territory  of  that  flour- 
ishing colony.  After  this  violation  of  all  religious  observances, 
you  hasten  off  to  the  estate  of  Marcus  Varro,  a  most  conscien- 
tious and  upright  man,  at  Casinum.  By  what  right  ?  with  what 
face  do  you  do  this  ?  By  just  the  same,  you  will  say,  as  that  by 
which  you  entered  on  the  estates  of  the  heirs  of  Lucius  Rubrius, 
or  of  the  heirs  of  Lucius  Turselius,  or  on  other  innumerable 
possessions.  If  you  got  the  right  from  any  auction,  let  the  auc- 
tion have  all  the  force  to  which  it  is  entitled ;  let  writings  be  of 
force,  provided  they  are  the  writings  of  Caesar,  and  not  your 
own ;  writings  by  which  you  are  bound,  not  those  by  which  you 
have  released  yourself  from  obligation. 

But  who  says  that  the  estate  of  Varro  at  Casinum  was  ever 
sold  at  all  ?  who  ever  saw  any  notice  of  that  auction  ?  who  ever 
heard  the  voice  of  the  auctioneer?  You  say  that  you  sent  a 
man  to  Alexandria  to  buy  it  of  Caesar.  It  was  too  long  to  wait 
for  Caesar  himself  to  come !  But  who  ever  heard  (and  there 
was  no  man  about  whose  safety  more  people  were  anxious)  that 
any  part  whatever  of  Varro's  property  had  been  confiscated? 
What  ?  what  shall  we  say  if  Caesar  even  wrote  you  that  you  were 
to  give  it  up  ?  What  can  be  said  strong  enough  for  such  enor- 
mous impudence?  Remove  for  a  while  those  swords  which 
we  see  around  us.  You  shall  now  see  that  the  cause  of  Caesar's 
25 


386  CICERO 

auctions  is  one  thing,  and  that  of  your  confidence  and  rashness 
is  another.  For  not  only  shall  the  owner  drive  you  from  that 
estate,  but  any  one  of  his  friends,  or  neighbors,  or  hereditary 
connections,  and  any  agent,  will  have  the  right  to  do  so. 

But  how  many  days  did  he  spend  revelling  in  the  most  scan- 
dalous manner  in  that  villa !  From  the  third  hour  there  was 
one  scene  of  drinking,  gambling,  and  vomiting.  Alas  for  the 
unhappy  house  itself!  how  different  a  master  from  its  former 
one  has  it  fallen  to  the  share  of !  Although,  how  is  he  the  mas- 
ter at  all  ?  but  still  by  how  different  a  person  has  it  been  occu- 
pied !  For  Marcus  Varro  used  it  as  a  place  of  retirement  for 
his  studies,  not  as  a  theatre  for  his  lusts.  What  noble  discus- 
sions used  to  take  place  in  that  villa !  what  ideas  were  originated 
there !  what  writings  were  composed  there !  The  laws  of  the 
Roman  people,  the  memorials  of  our  ancestors,  the  considera- 
tion of  all  wisdom  and  all  learning,  were  the  topics  that  used  to 
be  dwelt  on  then ;  but  now,  while  you  were  the  intruder  there 
(for  I  will  not  call  you  the  master),  every  place  was  resounding 
with  the  voices  of  drunken  men ;  the  pavements  were  floating 
with  wine ;  the  walls  were  dripping ;  nobly-born  boys  were  mix- 
ing with  the  basest  hirelings ;  prostitutes  with  mothers  of  fami- 
lies. Men  came  from  Casinnm,  from  Aquinum,  from  Inter- 
amna  to  salute  him.  No  one  was  admitted.  That,  indeed,  was 
proper.  For  the  ordinary  marks  of  respect  were  unsuited  to 
the  most  profligate  of  men.  When  going  from  thence  to  Rome 
he  approached  Aquinum,  a  pretty  numerous  company  (for  it 
is  a  populous  municipality)  came  out  to  meet  him.  But  he  was 
carried  through  the  town  in  a  covered  litter,  as  if  he  had  been 
dead.  The  people  of  Aquinum  acted  foolishly,  no  doubt ;  but 
still  they  were  in  his  road.  What  did  the  people  of  Anagnia  do  ? 
who,  although  they  were  out  of  his  line  of  road,  came  down  to 
meet  him,  in  order  to  pay  him  their  respects,  as  if  he  were  con- 
sul. It  is  an  incredible  thing  to  say,  but  still  it  was  only  too 
notorious  at  the  time,  that  he  returned  nobody's  salutation ;  es- 
pecially as  he  had  two  men  of  Anagnia  with  him,  Mustela  and 
Laco ;  one  of  whom  had  the  care  of  his  swords,  and  the  other 
of  his  drinking-cups. 

Why  should  I  mention  the  threats  and  insults  with  which 
he  inveighed  against  the  people  of  Teanum  Sidicinum,  with 
which  he  harassed  the  men  of  Puteoli,  because  they  had  adopted 


SECOND   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       387 

Caius  Cassius  and  the  Bruti  as  their  patrons  ?  a  choice  dictated, 
in  truth,  by  great  wisdom,  and  great  zeal,  benevolence,  and 
affection  for  them ;  not  by  violence  and  force  of  arms,  by  which 
men  have  been  compelled  to  choose  you,  and  Basilus,  and 
others  like  you  both — men  whom  no  one  would  choose  to  have 
for  his  own  clients,  much  less  to  be  their  client  himself. 

In  the  mean  time,  while  you  yourself  were  absent,  what  a  day 
was  that  for  your-colleague  when  he  overturned  that  tomb  in 
the  forum,  which  you  were  accustomed  to  regard  with  venera- 
tion !  And  when  that  action  was  announced  to  you,  you — as 
is  agreed  upon  by  all  who  were  with  you  at  the  time — fainted 
away.  What  happened  afterward  I  know  not.  I  imagine  that 
terror  and  arms  got  the  mastery.  At  all  events,  you  dragged 
your  colleague  down  from  his  heaven ;  and  you  rendered  him, 
not  even  now  like  yourself,  at  all  events  very  unlike  his  own 
former  self. 

After  that  what  a  return  was  that  of  yours  to  Rome !  How 
great  was  the  agitation  of  the  whole  city!  We  recollected 
Cinna  being  too  powerful ;  after  him  we  had  seen  Sylla  with  ab- 
solute authority,  and  we  had  lately  beheld  Caesar  acting  as  king. 
There  were  perhaps  swords,  but  they  were  sheathed,  and  they 
were  not  very  numerous.  But  how  great  and  how  barbaric  a 
procession  is  yours !  Men  follow  you  in  battle  array  with 
drawn  swords ;  we  see  whole  litters  full  of  shields  borne  along. 
And  yet  by  custom,  O  conscript  fathers,  we  have  become  inured 
and  callous  to  these  things.  When  on  the  first  of  June  we 
wished  to  come  to  the  Senate,  as  it  had  been  ordained,  we  were 
suddenly  frightened  and  forced  to  flee.  But  he,  having  no 
need  of  a  Senate,  did  not  miss  any  of  us,  and  rather  rejoiced  at 
our  departure,  and  immediately  proceeded  to  those  marvellous 
exploits  of  his.  He  who  had  defended  the  memoranda  of  Caesar 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  profit,  overturned  the  laws  of  Caesar — 
and  good  laws,  too — for  the  sake  of  being  able  to  agitate  the 
republic.  He  increased  the  number  of  years  that  magistrates 
were  to  enjoy  their  provinces ;  moreover,  though  he  was  bound 
to  be  the  defender  of  the  acts  of  Csesar,  he  rescinded  them  both 
with  reference  to  public  and  private  transactions. 

In  public  transactions  nothing  is  more  authoritative  than 
law ;  in  private  affairs  the  most  valid  of  all  deeds  is  a  will.  Of 
the  laws,  some  he  abolished  without  giving  the  least  notice; 


388  CICERO 

others  he  gave  notice  of  bills  to  abolish.  Wills  he  annulled, 
though  they  have  been  at  all  times  held  sacred  even  in  the  case 
of  the  very  meanest  of  the  citizens.  As  for  the  statues  and 
pictures  which  Caesar  bequeathed  to  the  people,  together  with 
his  gardens,  those  he  carried  away,  some  to  the  house  which 
belonged  to  Pompeius,  and  some  to  Scipio's  villa. 

And  are  you,  then,  diligent  in  doing  honor  to  Caesar's  mem- 
ory ?  Do  you  love  him  even  now  that  he  is  dead  ?  What  greater 
honor  had  he  obtained  than  that  of  having  a  holy  cushion,  an 
image,  a  temple,  and  a  priest  ?  As  then  Jupiter,  and  Mars,  and 
Quirinus  have  priests,  so  Marcus  Antonius  is  the  priest  of  the 
god  Julius.  Why,  then,  do  you  delay  ?  why  are  not  you  inaugu- 
rated ?  Choose  a  day ;  select  someone  to  inaugurate  you ;  we 
are  colleagues;  no  one  will  refuse.  O  you  detestable  man, 
whether  you  are  the  priest  of  a  tyrant,  or  of  a  dead  man !  I  ask 
you,  then,  whether  you  are  ignorant  what  day  this  is  ?  Are  you 
ignorant  that  yesterday  was  the  fourth  day  of  the  Roman  games 
in  the  Circus  ?  and  that  you  yourself  submitted  a  motion  to  the 
people,  that  a  fifth  day  should  be  added  besides,  in  honor  of 
Caesar  ?  Why  are  we  not  all  clad  in  the  praetexta  ?  Why  are 
we  permitting  the  honor  which  by  your  law  was  appointed  for 
Caesar  to  be  deserted?  Had  you  no  objection  to  so  holy  a  day 
being  polluted  by  the  addition  of  supplications,  while  you  did 
not  choose  it  to  be  so  by  the  addition  of  ceremonies  connected 
with  a  sacred  cushion  ?  Either  take  away  religion  in  every  case 
or  preserve  it  in  every  case. 

You  will  ask  whether  I  approve  of  his  having  a  sacred 
cushion,  a  temple,  and  a  priest?  I  approve  of  none  of  those 
things.  But  you,  who  are  defending  the  acts  of  Caesar,  what 
reason  can  you  give  for  defending  some,  and  disregarding 
others?  unless,  indeed,  you  choose  to  admit  that  you  measure 
everything  by  your  own  gain,  and  not  by  his  dignity.  What 
will  you  now  reply  to  these  arguments  (for  I  am  waiting  to  wit- 
ness your  eloquence  ;  I  knew  your  grandfather,  who  was  a  most 
eloquent  man,  but  I  know  you  to  be  a  more  undisguised  speaker 
than  he  was ;  he  never  harangued  the  people  naked ;  but  we  have 
seen  your  breast,  man,  without  disguise  as  you  are)  ?  Will  you 
make  any  reply  to  these  statements  ?  will  you  dare  to  open  your 
mouth  at  all?  Can  you  find  one  single  article  in  this  long 
speech  of  mine,  to  which  you  trust  that  you  can  make  any  an- 
swer? However,  we  will  say  no  more  of  what  is  past. 


SECOND  ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS  ANTONIUS       389 

But  this  single  day,  this  very  day  that  now  is,  this  very  mo- 
ment while  I  am  speaking,  defend  your  conduct  during  this 
very  moment,  if  you  can.  Why  has  the  Senate  been  surround- 
ed with  a  belt  of  armed  men  ?  Why  are  your  satellites  listening 
to  me  sword  in  hand  ?  Why  are  not  the  folding-doors  of  the 
temple  of  Concord  open?  Why  do  you  bring  men  of  all  na- 
tions the  most  barbarous,  Ityreans,  armed  with  arrows,  into  the 
forum?  He  says  that  he  does  so  as  a  guard.  Is  it  not,  then, 
better  to  perish  a  thousand  times  than  to  be  unable  to  live  in 
one's  own  city  without  a  guard  of  armed  men?  But  believe 
me,  there  is  no  protection  in  that ;  a  man  must  be  defended  by 
the  affection  and  good-will  of  his  fellow-citizens,  not  by  arms. 
The  Roman  people  will  take  them  -from  you,  will  wrest  them 
from  your  hands ;  I  wish  that  they  may  do  so  while  we  are  still 
safe.  But  however  you  treat  us,  as  long  as  you  adopt  those 
counsels,  it  is  impossible  for  you,  believe  me,  to  last  long.  In 
truth,  that  wife  of  yours,  who  is  so  far  removed  from  covetous- 
ness,  and  whom  I  mention  without  intending  any  slight  to  her, 
has  been  too  long  owing 15  her  third  payment  to  the  state.  The 
Roman  people  has  men  to  whom  it  can  intrust  the  helm  of  the 
state ;  and  wherever  they  are,  there  is  all  the  defence  of  the  re- 
public, or  rather,  there  is  the  republic  itself;  which  as  yet  has 
only  avenged,  but  has  not  re-established  itself.  Truly  and 
surely  has  the  republic  most  high-born  youths  ready  to  defend 
it,  though  they  may  for  a  time  keep  in  the  background  from  a 
desire  for  tranquillity,  still  they  can  be  recalled  by  the  republic 
at  any  time. 

The  name  of  peace  is  sweet,  the  thing  itself  is  most  salutary. 
But  between  peace  and  slavery  there  is  a  wide  difference.  Peace 
is  liberty  in  tranquillity ;  slavery  is  the  worst  of  all  evils — to  be 
repelled,  if  need  be,  not  only  by  war,  but  even  by  death.  But 
if  those  deliverers  of  ours  have  taken  themselves  away  out  of 
our  sight,  still  they  have  left  behind  the  example  of  their  con- 
duct. They  have  done  what  no  one  else  had  done.  Brutus 
pursued  Tarquinius  with  war;  who  was  a  king  when  it  was  law- 
ful for  a  king  to  exist  in  Rome.  Spurius  Cassius,  Spurius  Mae- 
lius,  and  Marcus  Manlius  were  all  slain  because  they  were  sus- 
pected of  aiming  at  regal  power.  These  are  the  first  men  who 

1B  It    has   been    explained    before   that        and   of   Curio,   before   she   married   An- 
Fulvia  had  been  the  widow  of  Clodius        tonius. 


39° 


CICERO 


have  ever  ventured  to  attack,  sword  in  hand,  a  man  who  was  not 
aiming  at  regal  power,  but  actually  reigning.  And  their  action 
is  not  only  of  itself  a  glorious  and  godlike  exploit,  but  it  is  also 
one  put  forth  for  our  imitation ;  especially  since  by  it  they  have 
acquired  such  glory  as  appears  hardly  to  be  bounded  by  heaven 
itself.  For  although  in  the  very  consciousness  of  a  glorious 
action  there  is  a  certain  reward,  still  I  do  not  consider  immor- 
tality of  glory  a  thing  to  be  despised  by  one  who  is  himself 
mortal. 

Recollect,  then,  O  Marcus  Antonius,  that  day  on  which  you 
abolished  the  dictatorship.  Set  before  you  the  joy  of  the  Senate 
and  people  of  Rome ;  compare  it  with  this  infamous  market  held 
by  you  and  by  your  friends ;  and  then  you  will  understand  how 
great  is  the  difference  between  praise  and  profit.  But  in  truth, 
just  as  some  people,  through  some  disease  which  has  blunted 
the  senses,  have  no  conception  of  the  niceness  of  food,  so  men 
who  are  lustful,  avaricious,  and  criminal,  have  no  taste  for  true 
glory.  But  if  praise  cannot  allure  you  to  act  rightly,  still  can- 
not even  fear  turn  you  away  from  the  most  shameful  actions  ? 
You  are  not  afraid  of  the  courts  of  justice.  If  it  is  because  you 
are  innocent,  I  praise  you ;  if  because  you  trust  in  your  power 
of  overbearing  them  by  violence,  are  you  ignorant  of  what  that 
man  has  to  fear,  who  on  such  an  account  as  that  does  not  fear 
the  courts  of  justice  ? 

But  if  you  are  not  afraid  of  brave  men  and  illustrious  citizens, 
because  they  are  prevented  from  attacking  you  by  your  armed 
retinue,  still,  believe  me,  your  own  fellows  will  not  long  endure 
you.  And  what  a  life  is  it,  day  and  night  to  be  fearing  danger 
from  one's  own  people !  Unless,  indeed,  you  have  men  who  are 
bound  to  you  by  greater  kindnesses  than  some  of  those  men  by 
whom  he  was  slain  were  bound  to  Caesar ;  or  unless  there  are 
points  in  which  you  can  be  compared  with  him. 

In  that  man  were  combined  genius,  method,  memory,  litera- 
ture, prudence,  deliberation,  and  industry.  He  had  performed 
exploits  in  war  which,  though  calamitous  for  the  republic,  were 
nevertheless  mighty  deeds.  Having  for  many  years  aimed  at 
being  a  king,  he  had  with  great  labor,  and  much  personal  dan- 
ger, accomplished  what  he  intended.  He  had  conciliated  the 
ignorant  multitude  by  presents,  by  monuments,  by  largesses  of 
food,  and  by  banquets ;  he  had  bound  his  own  party  to  him  by 


SECOND  ORATION  AGAINST  MARCUS   ANTONIUS       391 

rewards,  his  adversaries  by  the  appearances  of  clemency.  Why 
need  I  say  much  on  such  a  subject?  He  had  already  brought 
a  free  city,  partly  by  fear,  partly  by  patience,  into  a  habit  of 
slavery. 

With  him  I  can,  indeed,  compare  you  as  to  your  desire  to 
reign ;  but  in  all  other  respects  you  are  in  no  degree  to  be  com- 
pared to  him.  But  from  the  many  evils  which  by  him  have 
been  burned  into  the  republic,  there  is  still  this  good,  that  the 
Roman  people  has  now  learned  how  much  to  believe  everyone, 
to  whom  to  trust  itself,  and  against  whom  to  guard.  Do  you 
never  think  on  these  things?  And  do  you  not  understand  that 
it  is  enough  for  brave  men  to  have  learned  how  noble  a  thing  it 
is  as  to  the  act,  how  grateful  it  is  as  to  the  benefit  done,  how 
glorious  as  to  the  fame  acquired,  to  slay  a  tyrant?  When  men 
could  not  bear  him,  do  you  think  they  will  bear  you?  Believe 
me,  the  time  will  come  when  men  will  race  with  one  another  to 
do  this  deed,  and  when  no  one  will  wait  for  the  tardy  arrival  of 
an  opportunity. 

Consider,  I  beg  you,  Marcus  Antonius,  do  some  time  or  other 
consider  the  republic :  think  of  the  family  of  which  you  are  born, 
not  of  the  men  with  whom  you  are  living.  Be  reconciled  to  the 
republic.  However,  do  you  decide  on  your  conduct.  As  to 
mine,  I  myself  will  declare  what  that  shall  be.  I  defended  the 
republic  as  a  young  man,  I  will  not  abandon  it  now  that  I  am 
old.  I  scorned  the  sword  of  Catiline,  I  will  not  quail  before 
yours.  No,  I  will  rather  cheerfully  expose  my  own  person,  if 
the  liberty  of  the  city  can  be  restored  by  my  death. 

May  the  indignation  of  the  Roman  people  at  last  bring  forth 
what  it  has  been  so  long  laboring  with.  In  truth,  if  twenty 
years  ago  in  this  very  temple  I  asserted  that  death  could  not 
come  prematurely  upon  a  man  of  consular  rank,  with  how  much 
more  truth  must  I  now  say  the  same  of  an  old  man  ?  To  me, 
indeed,  O  conscript  fathers,  death  is  now  even  desirable,  after 
all  the  honors  which  I  have  gained,  and  the  deeds  which  I  have 
done.  I  only  pray  for  these  two  things :  one,  that  dying  I  may 
leave  the  Roman  people  free.  No  greater  boon  than  this  can 
be  granted  me  by  the  immortal  gods.  The  other,  that  every- 
one may  meet  with  a  fate  suitable  to  his  deserts  and  conduct 
toward  the  republic. 


THE    NINTH    ORATION    AGAINST 
MARCUS    ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Ninth  Philippic 


THE  ARGUMENT 

Servius  Sulpicius  had  died  on  his  embassy  to  Marcus  Antonius,  be- 
fore Mutina ;  and  Pansa  called  the  Senate  together  to  deliberate  on  the 
honors  to  be  paid  to  his  memory.  Pansa  himself  proposed  a  public 
funeral,  a  sepulchre,  and  a  statue.  Servilius  opposed  the  statue,  as  due 
only  to  those  who  had  been  slain  by  violence  while  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duties  as  embassadors.  Cicero  delivered  the  following  oration  in 
support  of  Pansa's  proposition,  which  was  carried. 


394 


THE  NINTH   ORATION  AGAINST 
MARCUS  ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Ninth  Philippic 

I  WISH,  O  conscript  father,  that  the  immortal  gods  had 
granted  to  us  to  return  thanks  to  Servius  Sulpicius  while 
alive,  rather  than  thus  to  devise  honors  for  him  now  that 
he  is  dead.  Nor  have  I  any  doubt,  but  that  if  that  man  had 
been  able  himself  to  give  us  his  report  of  the  proceedings  of 
his  embassy,  his  return  would  have  been  acceptable  to  you  and 
salutary  to  the  republic.  Not  that  either  Lucius  Piso  or  Lucius 
Philippus  have  been  deficient  in  either  zeal  or  care  in  the  per- 
formance of  so  important  a  duty  and  so  grave  a  commission ; 
but,  as  Servius  Sulpicius  was  superior  in  age  to  them,  and  in 
wisdom  to  everyone,  he,  being  suddenly  taken  from  the  busi- 
ness, left  the  whole  embassy  crippled  and  enfeebled. 

But  if  deserved  honors  have  been  paid  to  any  embassador 
after  death,  there  is  no  one  by  whom  they  can  be  found  to 
have  been  ever  more  fully  deserved  than  by  Servius  Sulpicius. 
The  rest  of  those  men  who  have  died  while  engaged  on  an 
embassy,  have  gone  forth,  subject  indeed  to  the  usual  uncer- 
tainties of  life,  but  without  any  especial  danger  or  fear  of  death. 
Servius  Sulpicius  set  out  with  some  hope  indeed  of  reaching 
Antonius,  but  with  none  of  returning.  But  though  he  was 
so  very  ill  that  if  any  exertion  were  added  to  his  bad  state  of 
health,  he  would  have  no  hope  of  himself,  still  he  did  not  refuse 
to  try,  even  while  at  his  last  gasp,  to  be  of  some  service  to  the 
republic.  Therefore  neither  the  severity  of  the  winter,  nor  the 
snow,  nor  the  length  of  the  journey,  nor  the  badness  of  the 
roads,  nor  his  daily  increasing  illness,  delayed  him.  And  when 
he  had  arrived  where  he  might  meet  and  confer  with  the  man 
to  whom  he  had  been  sent,  he  departed  this  life  in  the  midst 

395 


396  CICERO 

of  his  care  and  consideration  as  to  how  he  might  best  dis- 
charge the  duty  which  he  had  undertaken. 

As  therefore,  O  Caius  Pansa,  you  have  done  well  in  other 
respects,  so  you  have  acted  admirably  in  exhorting  us  this  day 
to  pay  honor  to  Servius  Sulpicius,  and  in  yourself  making  an 
eloquent  oration  in  his  praise.  And  after  the  speech  which 
we  have  heard  from  you,  I  should  have  been  content  to  say 
nothing  beyond  barely  giving  my  vote,  if  I  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  reply  to  Publius  Servilius,  who  has  declared  his 
opinion  that  this  honor  of  a  statue  ought  to  be  granted  to  no 
one  who  has  not  been  actually  slain  with  a  sword  while  per- 
forming the  duties  of  his  embassy.  But  I,  O  conscript  fathers, 
consider  that  this  was  the  feeling  of  our  ancestors,  that  they 
considered  that  it  was  the  cause  of  death,  and  not  the  manner 
of  it,  which  was  a  proper  subject  for  inquiry.  In  fact,  they 
thought  fit  that  a  monument  should  be  erected  to  any  man 
whose  death  was  caused  by  an  embassy,  in  order  to  tempt  men 
in  perilous  wars  to  be  the  more  bold  in  undertaking  the  office 
of  an  embassador.  What  we  ought  to  do,  therefore,  is,  not 
to  scrutinize  the  precedents  afforded  by  our  ancestors,  but  to 
explain  their  intentions  from  which  the  precedents  themselves 
arose. 

Lar  Tolumnius,  the  king  of  Veii,  slew  four  ambassadors  of 
the  Roman  people,  at  Fidenae,  whose  statues  were  standing 
in  the  rostra  till  within  my  recollection.  The  honor  was  well 
deserved.  For  our  ancestors  gave  those  men  who  had  encoun- 
tered death  in  the  cause  of  the  republic  an  imperishable  memory 
in  exchange  for  this  transitory  life.  We  see  in  the  rostra  the 
statue  of  Cnseus  Octavius,  an  illustrious  and  great  man,  the  first 
man  who  brought  the  consulship  into  that  family,  which  after- 
ward abounded  in  illustrious  men.  There  was  no  one  then  who 
envied  him,  because  he  was  a  new  man  ;  there  was  no  one  who 
did  not  honor  his  virtue.  But  yet  the  embassy  of  Octavius 
was  one  in  which  there  was  no  suspicion  of  danger.  For  hav- 
ing been  sent  by  the  Senate  to  investigate  the  dispositions  of 
kings  and  of  free  nations,  and  especially  to  forbid  the  grandson 
of  king  Antiochus,  the  one  who  had  carried  on  war  against  our 
forefathers,  to  maintain  fleets  and  to  keep  elephants,  he  was 
slain  at  Laodicea,  in  the  gymnasium,  by  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Leptines.  On  this  a  statue  was  given  to  him  by  our  ancestors 
as  a  recompense  for  his  life,  which  might  ennoble  his  progeny 


NINTH   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       397 

for  many  years,  and  which  is  now  the  only  memorial  left  of 
so  illustrious  a  family.  But  in  his  case,  and  in  that  of  Tullus 
Cluvius,1  and  Lucius  Roscius,  and  Spurius  Antius,  and  Caius 
Fulcinius,  who  were  slain  by  the  king  of  Veii,  it  was  not  the 
blood  that  was  shed  at  their  death,  but  the  death  itself  which 
was  encountered  in  the  service  of  the  republic,  which  was  the 
cause  of  their  being  thus  honored. 

Therefore,  O  conscript  fathers,  if  it  had  been  chance  which 
had  caused  the  death  of  Servius  Sulpicius,  I  should  sorrow 
indeed  over  such  a  loss  to  the  republic,  but  I  should  consider 
him  deserving  of  the  honor,  not  of  a  monument,  but  of  a  public 
mourning.  But,  as  it  is,  who  is  there  who  doubts  that  it  was 
the  embassy  itself  which  caused  his  death  ?  For  he  took  death 
away  with  him  ;  though,  if  he  had  remained  among  us,  his  own 
care,  and  the  attention  of  his  most  excellent  son  and  his  most 
faithful  wife,  might  have  warded  it  off.  But  he,  as  he  saw  that, 
if  he  did  not  obey  your  authority,  he  should  not  be  acting  like 
himself;  but  that  if  he  did  obey,  then  that  duty,  undertaken 
for  the  welfare  of  the  republic,  would  be  the  end  of  his  life ; 
preferred  dying  at  a  most  critical  period  of  the  republic,  to  ap- 
pearing to  have  done  less  service  to  the  republic  than  he  might 
have  done. 

He  had  an  opportunity  of  recruiting  his  strength  and  taking 
care  of  himself  in  many  cities  through  which  his  journey  lay. 
He  was  met  by  the  liberal  invitation  of  many  entertainers,  as 
his  dignity  deserved,  and  the  men  too  who  were  sent  with  him 
exhorted  him  to  take  rest,  and  to  think  of  his  own  health.  But 
he,  refusing  all  delay,  hastening  on,  eager  to  perform  your 
commands,  persevered  in  this  his  constant  purpose,  in  spite  of 
the  hinderances  of  his  illness.  And  as  Antonius  was  above  all 
things  disturbed  by  his  arrival,  because  the  commands  which 
were  laid  upon  him  by  your  orders  had  been  drawn  up  by  the 
authority  and  wisdom  of  Servius  Sulpicius,  he  showed  plainly 
how  he  hated  the  Senate  by  the  evident  joy  which  he  displayed 
at  the  death  of  the  adviser  of  the  Senate. 

Leptines  then  did  not  kill  Octavius,  nor  did  the  king  of  Veii 
slay  those  whom  I  have  just  named,  more  clearly  than  Antonius 
killed  Servius  Sulpicius.  Surely  he  brought  the  man  death, 
who  was  the  cause  of  his  death.  Wherefore,  I  think  it  of  con- 
sequence, in  order  that  posterity  may  recollect  it,  that  there 

1  There  is  some  corruption  of  the  text  here. 


398  CICERO 

should  be  a  record  of  what  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  was  con- 
cerning this  war.  For  the  statue  itself  will  be  a  witness  that 
the  war  was  so  serious  a  one,  that  the  death  of  an  ambassador  in 
it  gained  the  honor  of  an  imperishable  memorial. 

But  if,  O  conscript  fathers,  you  would  only  recollect  the  ex- 
cuses alleged  by  Servius  Sulpicius  why  he  should  not  be  ap- 
pointed to  this  embassy,  then  no  doubt  will  be  left  on  your 
minds  that  we  ought  to  repair  by  the  honor  paid  to  the  dead  the 
injury  which  we  did  to  him  while  living.  For  it  is  you,  O  con- 
script fathers  (it  is  a  grave  charge  to  make,  but  it  must  be 
uttered),  it  is  you,  I  say,  who  have  deprived  Servius  Sulpicius 
of  life.  For  when  you  saw  him  pleading  his  illness  as  an  ex- 
cuse more  by  the  truth  of  the  fact  than  by  any  labored  plea 
of  words,  you  were  not  indeed  cruel  (for  what  can  be  more 
impossible  for  this  order  to  be  guilty  of  than  that),  but  as  you 
hoped  that  there  was  nothing  that  could  not  be  accomplished 
by  his  authority  and  wisdom,  you  opposed  his  excuse  with 
great  earnestness,  and  compelled  the  man,  who  had  always 
thought  your  decisions  of  the  greatest  weight,  to  abandon  his 
own  opinion.  But  when  there  was  added  the  exhortation  of 
Pansa,  the  consul,  delivered  with  more  weight  than  the  ears 
of  Servius  Sulpicius  had  learned  to  resist,  then  at  last  he  led 
me  and  his  own  son  aside,  and  said  that  he  was  bound  to  prefer 
your  authority  to  his  own  life.  And  we,  admiring  his  virtue, 
did  not  dare  to  oppose  his  determination.  His  son  was  moved 
with  extraordinary  piety  and  affection,  and  my  own  grief  did 
not  fall  far  short  of  his  agitation  ;  but  each  of  us  was  compelled 
to  yield  to  his  greatness  of  mind,  and  to  the  dignity  of  his 
language,  when  he,  indeed,  amid  the  loud  praises  and  con- 
gratulations of  you  all,  promised  to  do  whatever  you  wished, 
and  not  to  avoid  the  danger  which  might  be  incurred  by  the 
adoption  of  the  opinion  of  which  he  himself  had  been  the  au- 
thor. And  we  the  next  day  escorted  him  early  in  the  morning 
as  he  hastened  forth  to  execute  your  commands.  And  he,  in 
truth,  when  departing,  spoke  with  me  in  such  a  manner  that 
his  language  seeemed  like  an  omen  of  his  fate. 

Restore  then,  O  conscript  fathers,  life  to  him  from  whom 
you  have  taken  it.  For  the  life  of  the  dead  consists  in  the  recol- 
lection cherished  of  them  by  the  living.  Take  ye  care  that 
he,  whom  you  without  intending  it  sent  to  his  death,  shall 
from  you  receive  immortality.  And  if  you  by  your  decree  erect 


NINTH   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       399 

a  statue  to  him  in  the  rostra,  no  forgetfulness  of  posterity  will 
ever  obscure  the  memory  of  his  embassy.  For  the  remainder 
of  the  life  of  Servius  Sulpicius  will  be  recommended  to  the 
eternal  recollection  of  all  men  by  many  and  splendid  memorials. 
The  praise  of  all  mortals  will  forever  celebrate  his  wisdom,  his 
firmness,  his  loyalty,  his  admirable  vigilance  and  prudence  in 
upholding  the  interests  of  the  public.  Nor  will  that  admirable, 
and  incredible,  and  almost  godlike  skill  of  his  in  interpreting 
the  laws  and  explaining  the  principles  of  equity  be  buried  in 
silence.  If  all  the  men  of  all  ages,  who  have  ever  had  any  ac- 
quaintance with  the  law  in  this  city,  were  got  together  into  one 
place,  they  would  not  deserve  to  be  compared  to  Servius  Sul- 
picius. Nor  was  he  more  skilful  in  explaining  the  law  than 
in  laying  down  the  principles  of  justice.  Those  maxims 
which  were  derived  from  laws,  and  from  the  common  law,  he 
constantly  referred  to  the  original  principles  of  kindness  and 
equity.  Nor  was  he  more  fond  of  arranging  the  conduct  of 
lawsuits  than  of  preventing  disputes  altogether.  Therefore  he 
is  not  in  want  of  this  memorial  which  a  statue  will  provide ;  he 
has  other  and  better  ones.  For  this  statue  will  be  only  a  wit- 
ness of  his  honorable  death  ;  those  actions  will  be  the  memorial 
of  his  glorious  life.  So  that  this  will  be  rather  a  monument  of 
the  gratitude  of  the  Senate,  than  of  the  glory  of  the  man. 

The  affection  of  the  son,  too,  will  appear  to  have  great  in- 
fluence in  moving  us  to  honor  the  father ;  for  although,  being 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  he  is  not  present,  still  you  ought  to  be 
animated  with  the  same  feelings  as  if  he  were  present.  But  he 
is  in  such  distress,  that  no  father  ever  sorrowed  more  over  the 
loss  of  an  only  son  than  he  grieves  for  the  death  of  his  father. 
Indeed,  I  think  that  it  concerns  also  the  fame  of  Servius  Sul- 
picius the  son,  that  he  should  appear  to  have  paid  all  due  re- 
spect to  his  father.  Although  Servius  Sulpicius  could  leave  no 
nobler  monument  behind  him  than  his  son,  the  image  of  his 
own  manners,  and  virtues,  and  wisdom,  and  piety,  and  genius ; 
whose  grief  can  either  be  alleviated  by  this  honor  paid  to  his 
father  by  you,  or  by  no  consolation  at  all. 

But  when  I  recollect  the  many  conversations  which  in 
the  days  of  our  intimacy  on  earth  I  have  had  with  Servius 
Sulpicius,  it  appears  to  me,,  that  if  there  be  any  feeling  in 
the  dead,  a  brazen  statue,  and  that  too  a  pedestrian  one,  will 
be  more  acceptable  to  him  than  a  gilt  equestrian  one,  such  as 


400  CICERO 

was  first  erected  to  Lucius  Sylla.  For  Servius  was  wonder- 
fully attached  to  the  moderation  of  our  forefathers,  and  was 
accustomed  to  reprove  the  insolence  of  this  age.  As  if,  there- 
fore, I  were  able  to  consult  himself  as  to  what  he  would  wish, 
so  I  give  my  vote  for  a  pedestrian  statue  of  brass,  as  if  I 
were  speaking  by  his  authority  and  inclination ;  which  by 
the  honor  of  the  memorial  will  diminish  and  mitigate  the  great 
grief  and  regret  of  his  fellow-citizens.  And  it  is  certain  that 
this  my  opinion,  O  conscript  fathers,  will  be  approved  of  by- 
the  opinion  of  Publius  Servilius,  who  has  given  his  vote  that 
a  sepulchre  be  publicly  decreed  to  Servius  Sulpicius,  but  has 
voted  against  the  statue.  For  if  the  death  of  an  embassador 
happening  without  bloodshed  and  violence  requires  no  honor, 
why  does  he  vote  for  the  honor  of  a  public  funeral,  which  is 
the  greatest  honor  that  can  be  paid  to  a  dead  man?  If  he 
grants  that  to  Servius  Sulpicius  which  was  not  given  to  Cnaeus 
Octavius,  why  does  he  think  that  we  ought  not  to  give  to  the 
former  what  was  given  to  the  latter?  Our  ancestors,  indeed, 
decreed  statues  to  many  men;  public  sepulchres  to  few.  But 
statues  perish  by  weather,  by  violence,  by  lapse  of  time;  but 
the  sanctity  of  the  sepulchres  is  in  the  soil  itself,  which  can 
neither  be  moved  nor  destroyed  by  any  violence;  and  while 
other  things  are  extinguished,  so  sepulchres  became  holier  by 
age. 

Let,  then,  that  man  be  distinguished  by  that  honor  also,  a 
man  to  whom  no  honor  can  be  given  which  is  not  deserved. 
Let  us  be  grateful  in  paying  respect  in  death  to  him  to  whom 
we  can  now  show  no  other  gratitude.  And  by  that  same 
step  let  the  audacity  of  Marcus  Antonius,  waging  a  nefarious 
war,  be  branded  with  infamy.  For  when  these  honors  have 
been  paid  to  Servius  Sulpicius,  the  evidence  of  his  embassy 
having  been  insulted  and  rejected  by  Antonious  will  remain  for 
everlasting. 

On  which  account  I  give  my  vote  for  a  decree  in  this  form : 
"  As  Servius  Sulpicius  Rufus,  the  son  of  Quintus,  of  the 
Lemonian  tribe,  at  a  most  critical  period  of  the  republic,  and 
being  ill  with  a  very  serious  and  dangerous  disease,  preferred 
the  authority  of  the  Senate  and  the  safety  of  the  republic  to 
his  own  life,  and  struggled  against  the  violence  and  severity 
of  his  illness,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  camp  of  Antonius,  to 


NINTH   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS       401 

which  the  Senate  had  sent  him;  and  as  he,  when  he  had  al- 
most arrived  at  the  camp,  being  overwhelmed  by  the  violence 
of  the  disease,  has  lost  his  life  in  discharging  a  most  impor- 
tant office  of  the  republic ;  and  as  his  death  has  been  in  strict 
correspondence  to  a  life  passed  with  the  greatest  integrity  and 
honor,  during  which  he,  Servius  Sulpicius,  has  often  been  of 
great  service  to  the  republic,  both  as  a  private  individual  and 
in  the  discharge  of  various  magistracies ;  and  as  he,  being  such 
a  man,  has  encountered  death  on  behalf  of  the  republic  while 
employed  on  an  embassy,  the  Senate  decrees  that  a  brazen 
pedestrian  statue  of  Servius  Sulpicius  be  erected  in  the  rostra 
in  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  this  order,  and  that  his 
children  and  posterity  shall  have  a  place  round  this  statue 
of  five  feet  in  every  direction,  from  which  to  behold  the  games 
and  gladiatorial  combats,  because  he  died  in  the  cause  of  the 
republic;  and  that  this  reason  be  inscribed  on  the  pedestal  of 
the  statue ;  and  that  Caius  Pansa  and  Aulus  Hirtius  the  con- 
suls, one  or  both  of  them,  if  it  seem  good  to  them,  shall  com- 
mand the  quaestors  of  the  city  to  let  out  a  contract  for  mak- 
ing that  pedestal  and  that  statue,  and  erecting  them  in  the 
rostra;  and  that  whatever  price  they  contract  for,  they  shall 
take  care  the  amount  is  given  and  paid  to  the  contractor; 
and  as  in  old  times  the  Senate  has  exerted  its  authority  with 
respect  to  the  obsequies  of,  and  honors  paid  to  brave  men,  it 
now  decrees  that  he  shall  be  carried  to  the  tomb  on  the  day 
of  his  funeral  with  the  greatest  possible  solemnity.  And  as 
Servius  Sulpucius  Rufus,  the  son  of  Quintus  of  the  Lemonian 
tribe,  has  deserved  so  well  of  the  republic  as  to  be  entitled  to 
be  complimented  with  all  those  distinctions ;  the  Senate  is  of 
opinion,  and  thinks  it  for  the  advantage  of  the  republic,  that 
the  consule  aedile  should  suspend  the  edict  which  usually  pre- 
vails with  respect  to  funerals  in  the  case  of  the  funeral  of 
Servius  Sulpicius  Rufus,  the  son  of  Quintus  of  the  Lemonian 
tribe;  and  that  Caius  Pansa,  the  consul,  shall  assign  him  a 
place  for  a  tomb  in  the  Esquiline  plain,  or  in  whatever  place 
shall  seem  good  to  him,  extending  thirty  feet  in  every  direc- 
tion, where  Servius  Sulpicius  may  be  buried;  and  that  that 
shall  be  his  tomb,  and  that  of  his  children  and  posterity,  as 
having  been  a  tomb  most  deservedly  given  to  them  by  the 
public  authority." 
26 


THE    LAST    ORATION    AGAINST 
MARCUS    ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Fourteenth  Philippic 


THE   ARGUMENT 

Brutus  gained  great  advantages  in  Macedonia  over  Caius  Antonius, 
and  took  him  prisoner.  He  treated  him  with  great  lenity,  so  much 
so  as  to  displease  Cicero,  who  remonstrated  with  him  strongly  on  his 
design  of  setting  him  at  liberty.  He  was  also  under  some  apprehension 
as  to  the  steadiness  of  Plancus's  loyalty  to  the  Senate;  but  on  his 
writing  to  that  body  to  assure  them  of  his  obedience,  Cicero  procured 
a  vote  of  some  extraordinary  honors  to  him. 

Cassius  also  about  the  same  time  was  very  successful  in  Syria,  of 
which  he  wrote  Cicero  a  full  account.  Meantime  reports  were  being 
spread  in  the  city  by  the  partisans  of  Antonius,  of  his  success  before 
Mutina;  and  even  of  his  having  gained  over  the  consuls.  Cicero  too 
was  personally  much  annoyed  at  a  report  which  they  spread  of  his 
having  formed  the  design  of  making  himself  master  of  the  city  and 
assuming  the  title  of  dictator;  but  when  Apuleius,  one  of  his  friends, 
and  a  tribune  of  the  people,  proceeded  to  make  a  speech  to  the  people 
in  Cicero's  justification,  the  people  all  cried  out  that  he  had  never 
done  anything  which  was  not  for  the  advantage  of  the  republic.  About 
the  same  time  news  arrived  of  a  victory  gained  over  Antonius  at 
Mutina. 

Pansa  was  now  on  the  point  of  joining  Hirtius  with  four  new 
legions,  and  Antonius  endeavored  to  surprise  him  on  the  road  before 
he  could  effect  that  junction.  A  severe  battle  ensued,  in  which 
Hirtius  came  to  Pansa's  aid,  and  Antonius  was  defeated  with  great 
loss.  On  the  receipt  of  the  news  the  populace  assembled  about  Cicero's 
house,  and  carried  him  in  triumph  to  the  Capitol.  The  next  day 
Marcus  Cornutus,  the  praetor,  summoned  the  Senate  to  deliberate  on 
the  letters  received  from  the  consuls  and  Octavius,  giving  an  account 
of  the  victory.  Servilius  declared  his  opinion  that  the  citizens  should 
relinquish  the  sagurn,  or  robe  of  war;  and  that  a  supplication  should 
be  decreed  in  honor  of  the  consuls  and  Octavius.  Cicero  rose  next 
and  delivered  the  following  speech,  objecting  to  the  relinquishment  of 
the  robe  of  war,  and  blaming  Servilius  for  not  calling  Antonius  an 
enemy.  The  measures  which  he  himself  proposed  were  carried. 


404 


THE  LAST  ORATION  AGAINST 
MARCUS  ANTONIUS 

Called  also  the  Fourteenth  Philippic 

IF,  O  conscript  fathers,  while  I  learned  from  the  letters 
which  have  been  read  that  the  army  of  our  most  wicked 
enemies  had  been  defeated  and  routed,  I  had  also  learned 
what  we  all  wish  for  above  all  things,  and  which  we  do  sup- 
pose has  resulted  from  that  victory  which  has  been  achieved 
— namely,  that  Decimus  Brutus  had  already  quitted  Mutina — 
then  I  should  without  any  hesitation  give  my  vote  for  our 
returning  to  our  usual  dress  out  of  joy  at  the  safety  of  that 
citizen  on  account  of  whose  danger  it  was  that  we  adopted  the 
robe  of  war.  But  before  any  news  of  that  event  which  the  city 
looks  for  with  the  greatest  eagerness  arrives,  we  have  sufficient 
reason  indeed  for  joy  at  this  most  important  and  most  illus- 
trious battle;  but  reserve,  I  beg  yeu,  your  return  to  your 
usual  dress  for  the  time  of  complete  victory.  But  the  com- 
pletion of  this  war  is  the  safety  of  Decimus  Brutus. 

But  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  proposal  that  our  dress 
shall  be  changed  just  for  to-day,  and  that  to-morrow  we 
should  again  come  forth  in  the  garb  of  war?  Rather  when 
we  have  once  turned  to  that  dress  which  we  wish  and  desire 
to  assume,  let  us  strive  to  retain  it  forever;  for  this  is  not 
only  discreditable,  but  it  is  displeasing  also  to  the  immortal 
gods,  to  leave  their  altars,  which  we  have  approached  in  the 
attire  of  peace,  for  the  purpose  of  assuming  the  garb  of  war. 
And  I  notice,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  there  are  some  who 
favor  this  proposal :  whose  intention  and  design  is,  as  they  see 
that  that  will  be  a  most  glorious  day  for  Decimus  Brutus  on 
which  we  return  to  our  usual  dress  out  of  joy  for  his  safety, 
to  deprive  him  of  this  great  reward,  so  that  it  may  not  be 

405 


406  CICERO 

handed  down  to  the  recollection  of  posterity  that  the  Roman 
people  had  recourse  to  the  garb  of  war  on  account  of  the  dan- 
ger of  one  single  citizen,  and  then  returned  to  their  gowns 
of  peace  on  account  of  his  safety.  Take  away  this  reason, 
and  you  will  find  no  other  for  so  absurd  a  proposal.  But 
do  you,  O  conscript  fathers,  preserve  your  authority,  adhere 
to  your  own  opinions,  preserve  in  your  recollection  what  you 
have  often  declared,  that  the  whole  result  of  this  entire  war 
depends  on  the  life  of  one  most  brave  and  excellent  man. 

For  the  purpose  of  effecting  the  liberation  of  Decimus  Bru- 
tus, the  chief  men  of  the  state  were  sent  as  ambassadors,  to 
give  notice  to  that  enemy  and  parricidal  traitor  to  retire  from 
Mutina ;  for  the  sake  of  preserving  that  same  Decimus  Brutus, 
Aulus  Hirtius,  the  consul,  went  by  lot  to  conduct  the  war; 
a  man  the  weakness  of  whose  bodily  health  was  made  up  for 
by  the  strength  of  his  courage,  and  encouraged  by  the  hope 
of  victory ;  Caesar,  too,  after  he,  with  an  army  levied  by  his 
own  resources  and  on  his  own  authority,  had  delivered  the 
republic  from  the  first  dangers  that  assailed  it,  in  order  to 
prevent  any  subsequent  wicked  attempts  from  being  origi- 
nated, departed  to  assist  in  the  deliverance  of  the  same  Bru- 
tus, and  subdued  some  family  vexation  which  he  may  have 
felt  by  his  attachment  to  his  country.  What  other  object  had 
Caius  Pansa  in  holding  the  levies  which  he  did,  and  in  collect- 
ing money,  and  in  carrying  the  most  severe  resolutions  of 
the  Senate  against  Antonius,  and  in  exhorting  us,  and  in  in- 
viting the  Roman  people  to  embrace  the  cause  of  liberty,  except 
to  insure  the  deliverance  of  Decimus  Brutus?  For  the  Roman 
people  in  crowds  demanded  at  his  hands  the  safety  of  Decimus 
Brutus  with  such  unanimous  outcries,  that  he  was  compelled 
to  prefer  it  not  only  to  any  consideration  of  his  own  personal 
advantage,  but  even  to  his  own  necessities.  And  that  end  we 
now,  O  conscript  fathers,  are  entitled  to  hope  is  either  at  the 
point  of  being  achieved,  or  is  actually  gained ;  but  it  is  right 
for  the  reward  of  our  hopes  to  be  reserved  for  the  issue  and 
event  of  the  business,  lest  we  should  appear  either  to  have 
anticipated  the  kindness  of  the  gods  by  our  over-precipitation, 
or  to  have  despised  the  bounty  of  fortune  through  our  own 
folly. 

But  since  the  manner  of  your  behavior  shows  plainly  enough 


LAST   ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         407 

what  you  think  of  this  matter,  I  will  come  to  the  letters  which 
have  arrived  from  the  consuls  and  the  propraetor,  after  I  have 
said  a  few  words  relating  to  the  letters  themselves. 

The  swords,  O  conscript  fathers,  of  our  legions  and  armies 
have  been  stained  with,  or  rather,  I  should  say,  dipped  deep 
in  blood  in  two  battles  which  have  taken  place  under  the  con- 
suls, and  a  third,  which  has  been  fought  under  the  command 
of  Caesar.  If  it  was  the  blood  of  enemies,  then  great  is  the 
piety  of  the  soldiers ;  but  it  is  nefarious  wickedness  if  it  was 
the  blood  of  citizens.  How  long,  then,  is  that  man,  who  has 
surpassed  all  enemies  in  wickedness,  to  be  spared  the  name  of 
enemy  ?  unless  you  wish  to  see  the  very  swords  of  our  soldiers 
trembling  in  their  hands  while  they  doubt  whether  they  are 
piercing  a  citizen  or  an  enemy.  You  vote  a  supplication ;  you 
do  not  call  Antonius  an  enemy.  Very  pleasing  indeed  to  the 
immortal  gods  will  our  thanksgivings  be,  very  pleasing  to 
the  victims,  after  a  multitude  of  our  citizens  has  been  slain! 
"  For  the  victory,"  says  the  proposer  of  the  supplication,  "  over 
wicked  and  audacious  men."  For  that  is  what  this  most  il- 
lustrious man  calls  them;  expressions  of  blame  suited  to  law- 
suits carried  on  in  the  city,  not  denunciations  of  searing  infamy 
such  as  deserved  by  internecine  war.  I  suppose  they  are  forg- 
ing wills,  or  trespassing  on  their  neighbors,  or  cheating  some 
young  men;  for  it  is  men  implicated  in  these  and  similar 
practices  that  we  are  in  the  habit  of  terming  wicked  and  auda- 
cious. One  man,  the  foulest  of  all  banditti,  is  waging  an  ir- 
reconcilable war  against  four  consuls.  He  is  at  the  same  time 
carrying  on  war  against  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome.  He 
is  (although  he  is  himself  hastening  to  destruction,  through 
the  disasters  which  he  has  met  with)  threatening  all  of  us 
with  destruction,  and  devastation,  and  torments,  and  tortures. 
He  declares  that  that  inhuman  and  savage  act  of  Dolabella's, 
which  no  nation  of  barbarians  would  have  owned,  was  done 
by  his  advice;  and  what  he  himself  would  do  in  this  city,  if 
this  very  Jupiter,  who  now  looks  down  upon  us  assembled  in 
his  temple,  had  not  repelled  him  from  this  temple  and  from 
these  walls,  he  showed,  in  the  miseries  of  those  inhabitants  of 
Parma,  whom,  virtuous  and  honorable  men  as  they  were,  and 
most  intimately  connected  with  the  authority  of  this  order, 
and  with  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  people,  that  villain  and 


408  CICERO 

monster,  Lucius  Antonius,  that  object  of  the  extraordinary 
detestation  of  all  men,  and  (if  the  gods  hate  those  whom  they 
ought)  of  all  the  gods  also,  murdered  with  every  circumstance 
of  cruelty.  My  mind  shudders  at  the  recollection,  O  conscript 
fathers,  and  shrinks  from  relating  the  cruelties  which  Lucius 
Antonius  perpetrated  on  the  children  and  wives  of  the  citizens 
of  Parma.  Whatever  disgrace  the  Antonii  voluntarily  under- 
went that  they  strove  to  lay  upon  others  against  their  will. 
But  it  is  a  miserable  violence  which  they  offered  to  them ; 
most  unholy  lust,  such  as  the  whole  life  of  the  Antonii  is  pol- 
luted with. 

Is  there  then  anyone  who  is  afraid  to  call  those  men  ene- 
mies, whose  wickedness  he  admits  to  have  surpassed  even 
the  inhumanity  of  the  Carthaginians  ?  For  in  what  city,  when 
taken  by  storm,  did  Hannibal  even  behave  with  such  ferocity 
as  Antonius  did  in  Parma,  which  he  filched  by  surprise?  Un- 
less, mayhap,  Antonius  is  not  to  be  considered  the  enemy  of 
this  colony,  and  of  the  others  toward  which  he  is  animated 
with  the  same  feelings.  But  if  he  is  beyond  all  question  the 
enemy  of  the  colonies  and  municipal  towns,  then  what  do  you 
consider  him  with  respect  to  this  city  which  he  is  so  eager  for, 
to  satiate  the  indigence  of  his  band  of  robbers?  which  that 
skilful  and  experienced  surveyor  of  his,  Saxa,  has  already 
marked  out  with  his  rule.  Recollect,  I  entreat  you,  in  the 
name  of  the  immortal  gods,  O  conscript  fathers,  what  we  have 
been  fearing  for  the  last  two  days,  in  consequence  of  infamous 
rumors  carefully  disseminated  by  enemies  within  the  walls. 
Who  has  been  able  to  look  upon  his  children  or  upon  his  wife 
without  weeping?  who  has  been  able  to  bear  the  sight  of  his 
home,  of  his  house,  and  his  household  gods?  Already  all  of 
us  were  expecting  a  most  ignominious  death,  or  meditating  a 
miserable  flight.  And  shall  we  hesitate  to  call  the  men  at 
whose  hands  we  feared  all  these  things  enemies?  If  anyone 
should  propose  a  more  severe  designation  I  will  willingly  agree 
to  it;  I  am  hardly  content  with  this  ordinary  one,  and  will 
certainly  not  employ  a  more  moderate  one. 

Therefore,  as  we  are  bound  to  vote,  and  as  Servilius  has  al- 
ready proposed  a  most  just  supplication  for  those  letters  which 
have  been  read  to  you;  I  will  propose  altogether  to  increase 
the  number  of  the  days  which  it  is  to  last,  especially  as  it  is 


LAST   ORATION  AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         409 

to  be  decreed  in  honor  of  three  generals  conjointly.  But  first 
of  all  I  will  insist  on  styling  those  men  imperator  by  whose 
valor,  and  wisdom,  and  good  fortune  we  have  been  released 
from  the  most  imminent  danger  of  slavery  and  death.  Indeed, 
who  is  there  within  the  last  twenty  years  who  has  had  a  sup- 
plication decreed  to  him  without  being  himself  styled  impera- 
tor, though  he  may  have  performed  the  most  insignificant  ex- 
ploits, or  even  almost  none  at  all?  Wherefore,  the  senator 
who  spoke  before  me  ought  either  not  to  have  moved  for  a 
supplication  at  all,  or  he  ought  to  have  paid  the  usual  and 
established  compliment  to  those  men  to  whom  even  new  and 
extraordinary  honors  are  justly  due. 

Shall  the  Senate,  according  to  this  custom  which  has 
now  obtained,  style  a  man  imperator  if  he  has  slain  a  thou- 
sand or  two  of  Spaniards,  or  Gauls,  or  Thracians;  and  now 
that  so  many  legions  have  been  routed,  now  that  such  a  mul- 
titude of  enemies  has  been  slain — ay,  enemies,  I  say,  al- 
though our  enemies  within  the  city  do  not  fancy  this  expres- 
sion— shall  we  pay  to  our  most  illustrious  generals  the  honor 
of  a  supplication,  and  refuse  them  the  name  of  imperator? 
For  with  what  great  honor,  and  joy,  and  exultation  ought 
the  deliverers  of  this  city  themselves  to  enter  into  this  tem- 
ple, when  yesterday,  on  account  of  the  exploits  which  they 
have  performed,  the  Roman  people  carried  me  in  an  ovation, 
almost  in  a  triumph  from  my  house  to  the  Capitol,  and  back 
again  from  the  Capitol  to  my  own  house?  That  is  indeed 
in  my  opinion  a  just  and  genuine  triumph,  when  men  who 
have  deserved  well  of  the  republic  receive  public  testimony 
to  their  merits  from  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Senate. 
For  if,  at  a  time  of  general  rejoicing  on  the  part  of  the  Ro- 
man people,  they  addressed  their  congratulations  to  one  in- 
dividual, that  is  a  great  proof  of  their  opinion  of  him;  if 
they  gave  him  thanks,  that  is  a  greater  still;  if  they  did 
both,  then  nothing  more  honorable  to  him  can  be  possibly 
imagined. 

Are  you  saying  all  this  of  yourself?  someone  will  ask.  It 
is  indeed  against  my  will  that  I  do  so ;  but  my  indignation  at 
injustice  makes  me  boastful,  contrary  to  my  usual  habit.  Is 
it  not  sufficient  that  thanks  should  not  be  given  to  men  who 
have  well  earned  them,  by  men  who  are  ignorant  of  the  very 


4io 


CICERO 


nature  of  virtue?  And  shall  accusations  and  odium  be  at- 
tempted to  be  excited  against  those  men  who  devote  all  their 
thoughts  to  insuring  the  safety  of  the  republic?  For  you 
well  know  that  there  has  been  a  common  report  for  the  last 
few  days  that  the  day  before  the  wine  feast,1  that  is  to  say, 
on  this  very  day,  I  was  intending  to  come  forth  with  the 
fasces  as  dictator.  One  would  think  that  this  story  was  in- 
vented against  some  gladiator,  or  robber,  or  Catiline,  and  not 
against  a  man  who  had  prevented  any  such  step  from  ever 
being  taken  in  the  republic.  Was  I,  who  defeated  and  over- 
threw and  crushed  Catiline,  when  he  was  attempting  such 
wickedness,  a  likely  man  myself  all  on  a  sudden  to  turn  out 
Catiline?  Under  what  auspices  could  I,  an  augur,  take  those 
fasces?  How  long  should  I  have  been  likely  to  keep  them? 
to  whom  was  I  to  deliver  them  as  my  successor?  The  idea  of 
anyone  having  been  so  wicked  as  to  invent  such  a  tale!  or 
so  mad  as  to  believe  it!  In  what  could  such  a  suspicion,  or 
rather  such  gossip,  have  originated  ? 

When,  as  you  know,  during  the  last  three  or  four  days  a 
report  of  bad  news  from  Mutina  has  been  creeping  abroad, 
the  disloyal  part  of  the  citizens,  inflated  with  exultation  and 
insolence,  began  to  collect  in  one  place,  at  that  senate-house 
which  has  been  more  fatal  to  their  party  than  to  the  republic. 
There,  while  they  were  forming  a  plan  to  massacre  us,  and 
were  distributing  the  different  duties  among  one  another,  and 
settling  who  was  to  seize  on  the  Capitol,  who  on  the  rostra, 
who  on  the  gates  of  the  city,  they  thought  that  all  the  citizens 
would  flock  to  me.  And  in  order  to  bring  me  into  unpopu- 
larity, and  even  into  danger  of  my  life,  they  spread  abroad 
this  report  about  the  fasces.  They  themselves  had  some  idea 
of  bringing  the  fasces  to  my  house ;  and  then,  on  pretence  of 
that  having  been  done  by  my  wish,  they  had  prepared  a  band 
of  hired  ruffians  to  make  an  attack  on  me  as  on  a  tyrant,  and 
a  massacre  of  all  of  you  was  intended  to  follow.  The  fact  is 
already  notorious,*  O  conscript  fathers,  but  the  origin  of  all 
this  wickedness  will  be  revealed  in  its  fitting  time. 

Therefore  Publius  Apuleius,  a  tribute  of  the  people,  who 

1  There  were  two  wine  feasts,  Vinalia.  October.     This  was  the  urbana  vinalia; 

at  Rome:  the  vinalia  urbana,  celebrated  on  which  occasion  the  wine-casks  which 

on   the  twenty-third   of  April;   and   the  had    been    filled    in    the    autumn    were 

vinalia    rustica,    on    the    nineteenth    of  tasted  for  the  first  time. 


LAST   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         411 

ever  since  my  consulship  has  been  the  witness  and  partaker 
of,  and  my  assistant  in  all  my  designs  and  all  my  dangers, 
could  not  endure  the  grief  of  witnessing  my  indignation.  He 
convened  a  numerous  assembly,  as  the  whole  Roman  people 
were  animated  with  one  feeling  on  the  subject.  And  when 
in  the  harangue  which  he  then  made,  he,  as  was  natural  from 
our  great  intimacy  and  friendship,  was  going  to  exculpate  me 
from  all  suspicion  in  the  matter  of  the  fasces,  the  whole  as- 
sembly cried  out  with  one  voice,  that  I  had  never  had  any 
intentions  with  regard  to  the  republic  which  were  not  excel- 
lent. After  this  assembly  was  over  within  two  or  three  hours, 
these  most  welcome  messengers  and  letters  arrived;  so  that 
the  same  day  not  only  delivered  me  from  a  most  unjust  odium, 
but  increased  my  credit  by  that  most  extraordinary  act  with 
which  the  Roman  people  distinguished  me. 

I  have  made  this  digression,  O  conscript  fathers,  not  so 
much  for  the  sake  of  speaking  of  myself  (for  I  should  be  in  a 
sorry  plight  if  I  were  not  sufficiently  acquitted  in  your  eyes 
without  the  necessity  of  making  a  formal  defence),  as  with 
the  view  of  warning  some  men  of  too  grovelling  and  narrow 
minds,  to  adopt  the  line  of  conduct  which  I  myself  have  al- 
ways pursued,  and  to  think  the  virtue  of  excellent  citizens 
worthy  of  imitation,  not  of  envy.  There  is  a  great  field  in 
the  republic,  as  Crassus  used  very  wisely  to  say;  the  road  to 
glory  is  open  to  many. 

Would  that  those  great  men  were  still  alive,  who,  after 
my  consulship,  when  I  myself  was  willing  to  yield  to  them, 
were  themselves  desirous  to  see  me  in  the  post  of  leader. 
But  at  the  present  moment,  when  there  is  such  a  dearth  of 
wise  and  fearless  men  of  consular  rank,  how  great  do  you  not 
suppose  must  be  my  grief  and  indignation,  when  I  see  some 
men  absolutely  disaffected  to  the  republic,  others  wholly  in- 
different to  everything,  others  incapable  of  persevering  with 
any  firmness  in  the  cause  which  they  have  espoused ;  and 
regulating  their  opinions  not  always  by  the"  ad  vantage  of  the 
republic,  but  sometimes  by  hope,  and  sometimes  by  fear. 
But  if  anyone  is  anxious  and  inclined  to  struggle  for  the 
leadership — though  struggle  there  ought  to  be  none — he  acts 
very  foolishly,  if  he  proposes  to  combat  virtue  with  vices. 
For  as  speed  is  only  outstripped  by  speed,  so  among  brave 


412 


CICERO 


men  virtue  is  only  surpassed  by  virtue.  Will  you,  if  I  am 
full  of  excellent  sentiments  with  respect  to  the  republic,  adopt 
the  worse  possible  sentiments  yourself  for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
celling me?  Or  if  you  see  a  race  taking  place  for  the  ac- 
quisition of  honors,  will  you  summon  all  the  wicked  men  you 
can  find  to  your  banner?  I  should  be  sorry  for  you  to  do 
so ;  first  of  all,  for  the  sake  of  the  republic,  and  secondly,  for 
that  of  your  own  dignity.  But  if  the  leadership  of  the  state 
were  at  stake,  which  I  have  never  coveted,  what  could  be 
more  desirable  for  me  than  such  conduct  on  your  part?  For 
it  is  impossible  that  I  should  be  defeated  by  wicked  sentiments 
and  measures — by  good  ones  perhaps  I  might  be,  and  I  will- 
ingly would  be. 

Some  people  are  vexed  that  the  Roman  people  should  see, 
and  take  notice  of,  and  form  their  opinion  on  these  matters. 
Was  it  possible  for  men  not  to  form  their  opinion  of  each  in- 
dividual as  he  deserved?  For  as  the  Roman  people  form  a 
most  correct  judgment  of  the  entire  Senate,  thinking  that  at 
no  period  in  the  history  of  the  republic  was  this  order  ever 
more  firm  or  more  courageous ;  so  also  they  all  inquire  dili- 
gently concerning  every  individual  among  us;  and  especially 
in  the  case  of  those  among  us  who  deliver  our  sentiments  at 
length  in  this  place,  they  are  anxious  to  know  what  those 
sentiments  are;  and  in  that  way  they  judge  of  each  one  of 
us,  as  they  think  that  he  deserves.  They  recollect  that  on 
the  nineteenth  of  December  I  was  the  main  cause  of  recover- 
ing our  f redom ;  that  from  the  first  of  January  to  this  hour  I 
have  never  ceased  watching  over  the  republic;  that  day  and 
night  my  house  and  my  ears  have  been  open  to  the  instruction 
and  admonition  of  everyone;  that  it  has  been  by  my  letters, 
and  my  messengers,  and  my  exhortations,  that  all  men  in 
every  part  of  the  empire  have  been  roused  to  the  protection 
of  our  country;  that  it  is  owing  to  the  open  declaration  of 
my  opinion  ever  since  the  first  of  January  that  no  ambas- 
sadors have  been  ever  sent  to  Antonius ;  that  I  have  always 
called  him  a  public  enemy,  and  this  a  war ;  so  that  I,  who  on 
every  occasion  have  been  the  adviser  of  genuine  peace,  have 
been  a  determined  enemy  to  this  pretence  of  fatal  peace. 

Have  not  I  also  at  all  times  pronounced  Ventidius  an  en- 
emy, when  others  wished  to  call  him  a  tribune  of  the  peo- 


LAST   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         413 

pie?  If  the  consuls  had  chosen  to  divide  the  Senate  on  my 
opinion,  their  arms  would  long  since  have  been  wrested  from 
the  hands  of  all  those  robbers  by  the  positive  authority  of  the 
Senate. 

But  what  could  not  be  done  then,  O  conscript  fathers,  at 
present  not  only  can  be,  but  even  must  be  done.  I  mean, 
those  men  who  are  in  reality  enemies  must  be  branded  in 
plain  language,  must  be  declared  enemies  by  our  formal  resolu- 
tion. Formerly,  when  I  used  the  words  "  war  "  or  "  enemy," 
men  more  than  once  objected  to  record  my  proposition  among 
the  other  propositions.  But  that  cannot  be  done  on  the  pres- 
ent occasion.  For  in  consequence  of  the  letters  of  Caius 
Pansa  and  Aulus  Hirtius,  the  consuls,  and  of  Caius  Caesar, 
propraetor,  we  have  all  voted  that  honors  be  paid  to  the  im- 
mortal gods.  The  very  man  who  lately  proposed  and  carried 
a  vote  for  a  supplication,  without  intending  it  pronounced 
those  men  enemies ;  for  a  supplication  has  never  been  decreed 
for  success  in  civil  war.  Decreed,  do  I  say?  It  has  never 
even  been  asked  for  in  the  letters  of  the  conqueror.  Sylla  as 
consul  carried  on  a  civil  war;  he  led  his  legions  into  the  city 
and  expelled  whomsoever  he  chose;  he  slew  those  whom  he 
had  in  his  power:  there  was  no  mention  made  of  any  suppli- 
cation. The  violent  war  with  Octavius  followed.  Cinna  the 
conqueror  had  no  supplication  voted  to  him.  Sylla  as  im- 
perator  revenged  the  victory  of  Cinna,  still  no  supplication 
was  decreed  by  the  Senate.  I  ask  you  yourself,  O  Publius 
Servilius,  did  your  colleague  send  you  any  letters  concerning 
that  most  lamentable  battle  of  Pharsalia?  Did  he  wish  you 
to  make  any  motion  about  a  supplication?  Certainly  not. 
But  he  did  afterward  when  he  took  Alexandria ;  when  he  de- 
feated Pharnaces;  but  for  the  battle  of  Pharsalia  he  did  not 
even  celebrate  a  triumph.  For  that  battle  had  destroyed  those 
citizens  whose,  I  will  not  say  lives,  but  even  whose  victory 
might  have  been  quite  compatible  with  the  safety  and  prosper- 
ity of  the  state.  And  the  same  thing  had  happened  in  the 
previous  civil  wars.  For  though  a  supplication  was  decreed  in 
my  honor  when  I  was  consul,  though  no  arms  had  been  had 
recourse  to  at  all,  still  that  was  voted  by  a  new  and  wholly 
unprecedented  kind  of  decree,  not  for  the  slaughter  of  enemies, 
but  for  the  preservation  of  the  citizens.  Wherefore  a  suppli- 


4i4  CICERO 

cation  on  account  of  the  affairs  of  the  republic  having  been  suc- 
cessfully conducted  must,  O  conscript  fathers,  be  refused  by 
you  even  though  your  generals  demand  it ;  a  stigma  which 
has  never  been  affixed  on  anyone  except  Gabinius ;  or  else, 
by  the  mere  fact  of  decreeing  a  supplication,  it  is  quite  inevi- 
table that  you  must  pronounce  those  men,  for  whose  defeat  you 
do  decree  it,  enemies  of  the  state. 

What  then  Servilius  did  in  effect,  I  do  in  express  terms, 
when  I  style  those  men  imperators.  By  using  this  name, 
I  pronounce  those  who  have  been  already  defeated,  and  those 
who  still  remain,  enemies  in  calling  their  conquerors  im- 
perators. For  what  title  can  I  more  suitably  bestow  on  Pansa  ? 
Though  he  has,  indeed,  the  title  of  the  highest  honor  in 
the  republic.  What,  too,  shall  I  call  Hirtius?  He,  indeed, 
is  consul ;  but  this  latter  title  is  indicative  of  the  kindness  of 
the  Roman  people ;  the  other  of  valor  and  victory.  What  ? 
Shall  I  hesitate  to  call  Caesar  imperator,  a  man  born  for  the 
republic  by  the  express  kindness  of  the  gods?  He  who  was 
the  first  man  who  turned  aside  the  savage  and  disgraceful 
cruelty  of  Antonius,  not  only  from  our  throats,  but  from  our 
limbs  and  bowels?  What  numerous  and  what  important  vir- 
tues, O  ye  immortal  gods,  were  displayed  on  that  single  day. 
For  Pansa  was  the  leader  of  all  in  engaging  in  battle  and  in 
combating  with  Antonius ;  O  general  worthy  of  the  Martial 
legion,  legion  worthy  of  its  general !  Indeed,  if  he  had  been 
able  to  restrain  its  irresistible  impetuosity,  the  whole  war 
would  have  been  terminated  by  that  one  battle.  But  as  the 
legion,  eager  for  liberty,  had  rushed  with  too  much  precipita- 
tion against  the  enemy's  line  of  battle,  and  as  Pansa  himself 
was  fighting  in  the  front  ranks,  he  received  two  dangerous 
wounds,  and  was  borne  out  of  the  battle,  to  preserve  his  life 
for  the  republic.  But  I  pronounce  him  not  only  imperator, 
but  a  most  illustrious  imperator ;  who,  as  he  had  pledged  him- 
self to  discharge  his  duty  to  the  republic  either  by  death  or  by 
victory,  has  fulfilled  one-half  of  his  promise ;  may  the  immor- 
tal gods  prevent  the  fulfilment  of  the  other  half ! 

Why  need  I  speak  of  Hirtius?  who,  the  moment  he  heard 
of  what  was  going  on,  with  incredible  promptness  and  cour- 
age led  forth  two  legions  out  of  the  camp;  that  noble  fourth 
legion,  which,  having  deserted  Antonius,  formerly  united 


LAST   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         415 

itself  to  the  Martial  legion;  and  the  seventh,  which,  consist- 
ing wholly  of  veterans,  gave  proof  in  that  battle  that  the 
name  of  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome  was  dear  to  those  sol- 
diers who  preserved  the  recollection  of  the  kindness  of  Caesar. 
With  these  twenty  cohorts,  with  no  cavalry,  while  Hirtius 
himself  was  bearing  the  eagle  of  the  fourth  legion — and  we 
never  heard  of  a  more  noble  office  being  assumed  by  any  gen- 
eral— he  fought  with  the  three  legions  of  Antonius  and  with 
his  cavalry,  and  overthrew,  and  routed,  and  put  to  the  sword 
those  impious  men  who  were  the  real  enemies  to  this  temple 
of  the  all-good  and  all-powerful  Jupiter,  and  to  the  rest  of  the 
temples  of  the  immortal  gods,  and  the  houses  of  the  city,  and 
the  freedom  of  the  Roman  people,  and  our  lives  and  actual  ex- 
istence ;  so  that  that  chief  and  leader  of  robbers  fled  away  with 
a  very  few  followers,  concealed  by  the  darkness  of  night,  and 
frightened  out  of  all  his  senses. 

Oh,  what  JSL  most  blessed  day  was  that,  which,  while  the  car- 
casses of  those  parricidal  traitors  were  strewed  about  every- 
where, beheld  Antonius  flying  with  a  few  followers,  before  he 
reached  his  place  of  concealment. 

But  will  anyone  hesitate  to  call  Caesar  imperator?  Most 
certainly  his  age  will  not  deter  anyone  from  agreeing  to  this 
proposition,  since  he  has  gone  beyond  his  age  in  virtue.  And 
to  me,  indeed,  the  services  of  Caius  Caesar  have  always  ap- 
peared the  more  thankworthy,  in  proportion  as  they  were 
less  to  have  been  expected  from  a  man  of  his  age.  For  when 
we  conferred  military  command  on  him,  we  were  in  fact  en- 
couraging the  hope  with  which  his  name  inspired  us;  and 
now  that  he  has  fulfilled  those  hopes,  he  has  sanctioned  the 
authority  of  our  decree  by  his  exploits.  This  young  man  of 
great  mind,  as  Hirtius  most  truly  calls  him  in  his  letters, 
with  a  few  cohorts  defended  the  camp  of  many  legions,  and 
fought  a  successful  battle.  And  in  this  manner  the  republic 
has  on  one  day  been  preserved  in  many  places  by  the  valor, 
and  wisdom,  and  good  fortune  of  three  imperators  of  the  Ro- 
man people. 

I  therefore  propose  supplications  of  fifty  days  in  the  joint 
names  of  the  three.  The  reasons  I  will  embrace  in  the  words 
of  the  resolution,  using  the  most  honorable  language  that  I 
can  devise. 


4i6  CICERO 

But  it  becomes  our  good  faith  and  our  piety  to  show  plainly 
to  our  most  gallant  soldiers  how  mindful  of  their  services 
and  how  grateful  for  them  we  are ;  and  accordingly  I  give  my 
vote  that  our  promises,  and  those  pledges  too  which  we  prom- 
ised to  bestow  on  the  legions  when  the  war  was  finished,  be 
repeated  in  the  resolution  which  we  are  going  to  pass  this 
day.  For  it  is  quite  fair  that  the  honor  of  the  soldiers,  es- 
pecially of  such  soldiers  as  those,  should  .be  united  with  that 
of  their  commanders.  And  I  wish,  O  conscript  fathers,  that 
it  was  lawful  for  us  to  dispense  rewards  to  all  the  citizens; 
although  we  will  give  those  which  we  have  promised  with 
the  most  careful  usury.  But  that  remains,  as  I  well  hope, 
to  the  conquerors,  to  whom  the  faith  of  the  Senate  is  pledged ; 
and,  as  they  have  adhered  to  it  at  a  most  critical  period  of 
the  republic,  we  are  bound  to  take  care  that  they  never  have 
cause  to  repent  of  their  conduct.  But  it  is  easy  for  us  to 
deal  fairly  by  those  men  whose  very  services,  though  mute, 
appear  to  demand  our  liberality.  This  is  a  much  more  praise- 
worthy and  more  important  duty,  to  pay  a  proper  tribute  of 
grateful  recollection  to  the  valor  of  those  men  who  have  shed 
their  blood  in  the  cause  of  their  country.  And  I  wish  more 
suggestions  could  occur  to  me  in  the  way  of  doing  honor  to 
those  men.  The  two  ideas  which  principally  do  occur  to  me, 
I  will  at  all  events  not  pass  over ;  the  one  of  which  has  refer- 
ence to  the  everlasting  glory  of  those  bravest  of  men ;  the 
other  may  tend  to  mitigate  the  sorrow  and  mourning  of  their 
relations. 

I  therefore  give  my  vote,  O  conscript  fathers,  that  the 
most  honorable  monument  possible  be  erected  to  the  soldiers 
of  the  Martial  legion,  and  to  those  soldiers  also  who  died 
fighting  by  their  side.  Great  and  incredible  are  the  services 
done  by  this  legion  to  the  republic.  This  was  the  first  legion 
to  tear  itself  from  the  piratical  band  of  Antonius;  this  was 
the  legion  which  encamped  at  Alba;  this  was  the  legion 
that  went  over  to  Caesar;  and  it  was  in  imitation  of  the  con- 
duct of  this  legion  that  the  fourth  legion  has  earned  almost 
equal  glory  for  its  virtue.  The  fourth  is  victorious  without 
having  lost  a  man;  some  of  the  Martial  legion  fell  in  the 
very  moment  of  victory.  O  happy  death,  which,  due  to  nat- 
ure, has  been  paid  in  the  cause  of  one's  country !  But  I  con- 


LAST   ORATION   AGAINST   MARCUS   ANTONIUS         417 

sider  you  men  born  for  your  country ;  you  whose  very  name 
is  derived  from  Mars,  so  that  the  same  god  who  begot  this 
city  for  the  advantage  of  the  nations,  appears  to  have  begotten 
you  for  the  advantage  of  this  city.  Death  in  flight  is  infa- 
mous ;  in  victory  glorious.  In  truth,  Mars  himself  seems  to 
select  all  the  bravest  men  from  the  battle  array.  Those  im- 
pious men  whom  you  slew,  shall  even  in  the  shades  below 
pay  the  penalty  of  their  parricidal  treason.  But  you,  who 
have  poured  forth  your  latest  breath  in  victory,  have  earned 
an  abode  and  place  among  the  pious.  A  brief  life  has  been 
allotted  to  us  by  nature ;  but  the  memory  of  a  well-spent  life 
is  imperishable.  And  if  that  memory  were  no  longer  than 
this  life,  who  would  be  so  senseless  as  to  strive  to  attain  even 
the  highest  praise  and  glory  by  the  most  enormous  labors  and 
dangers  ? 

You  then  have  fared  most  admirably,  being  the  bravest  of 
soldiers  while  you  lived,  and  now  the  most  holy  of  warriors, 
because  it  will  be  impossible  for  your  virtue  to  be  buried, 
either  through  the  forgetfulness  of  the  men  of  the  present  age, 
or  the  silence  of  posterity,  since  the  Senate  and  Roman  people 
will  have  raised  to  you  an  imperishable  monument,  I  may 
almost  say  with  their  own  hands.  Many  armies  at  various 
times  have  been  great  and  illustrious  in  the  Punic,  and  Gallic, 
and  Italians  wars ;  but  to  none  of  them  have  honors  been  paid 
of  the  description  which  are  now  conferred  on  you.  And  I 
wish  that  we  could  pay  you  even  greater  honors,  since  we  have 
received  from  you  the  greatest  possible  services.  You  it  was 
who  turned  aside  the  furious  Antonius  from  this  city;  you  it 
was  who  repelled  him  when  endeavoring  to  return.  There 
shall  therefore  be  a  vast  monument  erected  with  the  most 
sumptuous  work,  and  an  inscription  engraved  upon  it,  as  the 
everlasting  witness  of  your  godlike  virtue.  And  never  shall 
the  most  grateful  language  of  all  who  either  see  or  hear  of  your 
monument  cease  to  be  heard.  And  in  this  manner  you,  in 
exchange  for  your  mortal  condition  of  life,  have  attained  im- 
mortality. 

But  since,  O  conscript  fathers,  the  gift  of  glory  is  conferred 
on  these  most  excellent  and  gallant  citizens  by  the  honor  of 
a  monument,  let  us  comfort  their  relations,  to  whom  this  in- 
deed is  the  best  consolation.  The  greatest  comfort  for  their 
27 


4i  8  CICERO 

parents  is  the  reflection  that  they  have  produced  sons  who 
have  been  such  bulwarks  of  the  republic;  for  their  children, 
that  they  will  have  such  examples  of  virtue  in  their  family ; 
for  their  wives,  that  the  husbands  whom  they  have  lost  are 
men  whom  it  is  a  credit  to  praise,  and  to  have  a  right  to  mourn 
for;  and  for  their  brothers,  that  they  may  trust  that,  as  they 
resemble  them  in  their  persons,  so  they  do  also  in  their  virtues. 

Would  that  we  were  able  by  the  expression  of  our  senti- 
ments and  by  our  votes  to  wipe  away  the  tears  of  all  these 
persons;  or  that  any  such  oration  as  this  could  be  publicly 
addressed  to  them,  to  cause  them  to  lay  aside  their  grief  and 
mourning,  and  to  rejoice  rather,  that,  while  many  various 
kinds  of  death  impend  over  men,  the  most  honorable  kind  of 
all  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  their  friends ;  and  that  they  are 
not  unburied,  nor  deserted ;  though  even  that  fate,  when  in- 
curred for  one's  country,  is  not  accounted  miserable ;  nor 
burned  with  equable  obsequies  in  scattered  graves,  but  en- 
tombed in  honorable  sepulchres,  and  honored  with  public  of- 
ferings; and  with  a  building  which  will  be  an  altar  of  their 
valor  to  insure  the  recollection  of  eternal  ages. 

Wherefore  it  will  be  the  greatest  possible  comfort  to  their 
relations,  that  by  the  same  monument  are  clearly  displayed  the 
valor  of  their  kinsmen,  and  also  their  piety,  and  the  good  faith 
of  the  Senate,  and  the  memory  of  this  most  inhuman  war,  in 
which,  if  the  valor  of  the  soldiers  had  been  less  conspicuous, 
the  very  name  of  the  Roman  people  would  have  perished  by 
the  parricidal  treason  of  Marcus  Antonius.  And  I  think  also, 

0  conscript  fathers,  that  those  rewards  which  we  promised  to 
bestow  on  the  soldiers  when  we  had  recovered  the  republic, 
we  should  give  with  abundant  usury  to  those  who  are  alive 
and  victorious  when  the  time  comes;   and  that  in  the  case  of 
the  men  to  whom  those  rewards  were  promised,  but  who  have 
died  in  the  defence  of  their  country,  I  think  those  same  re- 
wards should  be  given  to  their  parents  or  children,  or  wives  or 
brothers. 

But  that  I  may  reduce  my  sentiments  into  a  formal  motion, 

1  give  my  vote  that, 

"  As  Caius  Pansa,  consul,  imperator,  set  the  example  of 
fighting  with  the  enemy  in  a  battle  in  which  the  Martial  le- 
gion defended  the  freedom  of  the  Roman  people  with  admira- 


419 

ble  and  incredible  valor,  and  the  legions  of  the  recruits  be- 
haved equally  well;  and  as  Caius  Pansa,  consul,  imperator, 
while  engaged  in  the  middle  of  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  received 
wounds;  and  as  Aulus  Hirtius,  consul,  imperator,  the  mo- 
ment that  he  heard  of  the  battle,  and  knew  what  was  going 
on,  with  a  most  gallant  and  loyal  soul,  led  his  army  out  of  his 
camp  and  attacked  Marcus  Antonius  and  his  army,  and  put 
his  troops  to  the  sword,  with  so  little  injury  to  his  own  army 
that  he  did  not  lose  one  single  man;  and  as  Caius  Caesar, 
propraetor,  imperator,  with  great  prudence  and  energy  defend- 
ed the  camp  successfully,  and  routed  and  put  to  the  sword  the 
forces  of  the  enemy  which  had  come  near  the  camp : 

"  On  these  accounts  the  Senate  thinks  and  declares  that  the 
Roman  people  has  been  released  from  the  most  disgraceful  and 
cruel  slavery  by  the  valor,  and  military  skill,  and  prudence, 
and  firmness,  and  perseverance,  and  greatness  of  mind  and 
good  fortune  of  these  their  generals.  And  decrees  that,  as 
they  have  preserved  the  republic,  the  city,  the  temples  of  the 
immortal  gods,  the  property  and  fortunes  and  families  of  all 
the  citizens,  by  their  own  exertions  in  battle,  and  at  the  risk 
of  their  own  lives;  on  account  of  these  virtuous  and  gallant 
and  successful  achievements,  Caius  Pansa  and  Aulus  Hirtius, 
the  consuls,  imperators,  one  or  both  of  them,  or,  in  their  ab- 
sence, Marcus  Cornutus,  the  city  praetor,  shall  appoint  a  sup- 
plication at  all  the  altars  for  fifty  days.  And  as  the  valor  of 
the  legions  has  shown  itself  worthy  of  their  most  illustrious 
generals,  the  Senate  will  with  great  eagerness,  now  that  the 
republic  is  recovered,  bestow  on  our  legions  and  armies  all  the 
rewards  which  it  formerly  promised  them.  And  as  the  Mar- 
tial legion  was  the  first  to  engage  with  the  enemy,  and  fought 
in  such  a  manner  against  superior  numbers  as  to  slay  many 
and  take  some  prisoners;  and  as  they  shed  their  blood  for 
their  country  without  any  shrinking;  and  as  the  soldiers  of 
the  other  legions  encountered  death  with  similar  valor  in  de- 
fence of  the  safety  and  freedom  of  the  Roman  people;  the 
Senate  does  decree  that  Caius  Pansa  and  Aulus  Hirtius,  the 
consuls,  imperators,  one  or  both  of  them  if  it  seems  good  to 
them,  shall  see  to  the  issuing  of  a  contract  for,  and  to  the 
erecting,  the  most  honorable  possible  monument  to  those  men 
who  shed  their  blood  for  the  lives  and  liberties  and  fortunes 


420  CICERO 

of  the  Roman  people,  and  for  the  city  and  temples  of  the  im- 
mortal gods ;  that  for  that  purpose  they  shall  order  the  city 
quaestors  to  furnish  and  pay  money,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
a  witness  for  the  everlasting  recollection  of  posterity  of  the 
wickedness  of  our  most  cruel  enemies,  and  the  godlike  valor 
of  our  soldiers.  And  that  the  rewards  which  the  Senate  pre- 
viously appointed  for  the  soldiers,  be  paid  to  the  parents  or 
children,  or  wives  or  brothers  of  those  men  who  in  this  war 
have  fallen  in  defence  of  their  country ;  and  that  all  honors  be 
bestowed  on  them  which  should  have  been  bestowed  on  the 
soldiers  themselves,  if  those  men  had  lived  who  gained  the 
victory  by  their  death." 


THE    PROSECUTION    OF    VERRES 

The  Fourth  Book  of  the  Second  Pleading 


THE  ARGUMENT 

The  subject  of  this  oration  is  the  manner  in  which  Verres  had 
plundered  not  only  private  individuals,  but  even  some  temples,  of 
valuable  statues,  and  other  works  of  art.  Among  the  instances  given 
some  of  the  most  prominent  are  the  plunder  of  Heius,  a  Messanian; 
of  Philarchus,  or  Centuripa;  of  several  other  private  citizens;  of 
Antiochus,  the  king;  and  of  the  temples  of  Diana,  Mercury, 'and 
Ceres.  A  French  translator  in  commenting  on  this  oration  says,  with 
reference  to  the  slighting  way  in  which  Cicero  speaks  of  the  works 
of  art  thus  stolen:  "The  Romans  struggled  for  some  time  against 
the  seductive  power  of  the  arts  of  Greece,  to  which  for  many  ages 
they  were  strangers.  At  first  they  really  did  despise  them;  afterwards 
they  affected  to  despise  them;  but  at  last  they  were  forced  to  bow 
the  head  beneath  the  brilliant  yoke  of  luxury;  and  Greece,  industrious, 
learned,  and  polite,  subdued  by  the  admiration  which  it  extorted,  the 
ignorant,  unlettered,  and  rude  barbarians  who  had  conquered  her  by 
force.  Faithful  to  the  ancient  maxims  of  the  republic,  Cicero  in  this 
oration  speaks  only  with  a  sort  of  disdain  of  the  arts  and  works  of 
the  most  famous  artists.  He  even  pretends  sometimes  not  to  be  too 
well  acquainted  with  the  names  of  the  most  celebrated  statuaries;  he 
often  repeats,  and  with  a  kind  of  affectation,  that  he  knows  very  little 
of  painting  or  sculpture;  and  rather  prides  himself,  as  one  may  say, 
on  his  ignorance.  He  seems  to  regard  a  taste  for  art  as  unworthy  of 
the  Romans,  and  the  finest  chefs  d'ccuvre  as  children's  toys,  fit  to  amuse 
the  trifling  and  frivolous  minds  of  the  Greeks,  whose  name  he  usually 
expresses  by  a  contemptuous'diminutive  (Graeculi),  but  little  calculated 
to  fix  the  attention,  or  attract  the  esteem  or  wishes  of  a  Roman  mind. 
In  general  there  runs  through  these  orations  a  tone  more  calculated 
to  render  Verres  ridiculous  than  to  make  one  feel  how  much  there 
was  in  all  his  attempts  which  was  odious  and  horrible.  The  orator 
even  permitted  himself  some  pleasantries,  for  which  his  taste  has 
been,  perhaps  too  severely,  called  in  question.  Cicero  had  no  dislike 
to  puns,  and  has  played  a  good  deal  on  the  name  of  Verres,  which 
means  a  boar.  He  was  too  eager  to  acquire  the  reputation  of  a  wit. 
It  is  true  that  the  person  of  Verres  was  sufficiently  inviting  as  a  subject 
for  ridicule.  He  was  one  of  those  gross  men  overloaded  with  fat, 
in  whom  the  bulk  of  body  appears  to  stifle  all  delicacy  of  moral  feeling. 
As  he  had  tried  to  carry  off  a  statue  of  Hercules  which  his  people 
could  with  difficulty  move  upon  its  pedestal,  Cicero  calls  this  the  thir- 
teenth of  the  labors  of  Hercules.  And  playing  continually  on  the  name 

423 


424 


CICERO 


of  Verres,  he  compares  him  to  the  boar  of  Erymanthus.  At  another 
time  he  calls  him  the  drag-net  of  Sicily,  because  the  name  Verres 
has  some  resemblance  to  the  word  everriuclum,  which  signifies  a  drag- 
net." 

Hortensius  endeavored  to  defend  Verres  from  the  charge  of  having 
stolen  these  statues,  etc.,  of  which  he  admits  that  he  had  become  the 
possessor,  by  contending  that  he  had  bought  them.  But  it  was  con- 
trary to  the  laws  for  a  magistrate  to  purchase  any  such  articles  in 
his  province;  and  Cicero  shows  also  that  the  prices  alleged  to  have 
been  given  are  so  wholly  disproportionate  to  their  value  that  it  is 
ridiculous  to  assert  that  the  things  had  been  purchased  and  not 
taken  by  force. 


THE    PROSECUTION    OF    VERRES 

The  Fourth  Book  of  the  Second  Pleading 

I  COME  now  to  what  Verres  himself  calls  his  passion ;  what 
his  friends  call  his  disease,  his  madness;  what  the  Sicilians 
call  his  rapine;  what  I  am  to  call  it,  I  know  not.  I  will 
state  the  whole  affair  to  you,  and  do  you  consider  it  according  to 
its  own  importance  and  not  by  the  importance  of  its  name. 
First  of  all,  O  judges,  suffer  me  to  make  you  acquainted  with 
the  description  of  this  conduct  of  his;  and  then,  perhaps,  you 
will  not  be  very  much  puzzled  to  know  by  what  name  to  call  it. 
I  say  that  in  all  Sicily,  in  all  that  wealthy  and  ancient  province, 
that  in  that  number  of  town  and  families  of  such  exceeding 
riches,  there  was  no  silver  vessel,  no  Corinthian  or  Delian  plate, 
no  jewel  or  pearl,  nothing  made  of  gold  or  ivory,  no  statue  of 
marble  or  brass  or  ivory,  no  picture  whether  painted  or  em- 
broidered, that  he  did  not  seek  out,  that  he  did  not  inspect,  that, 
if  he  liked  it,  he  did  not  take  away.  I  seem  to  be  making  a  very 
extensive  charge;  listen  now  to  the  manner  in  which  I  make  it. 
For  I  am  not  embracing  everything  in  one  charge  for  the  sake 
of  making  an  impression,  or  of  exaggerating  his  guilt.  When 
I  say  that  he  left  nothing  whatever  of  the  sort  in  the  whole  prov- 
ince, know  that  I  am  speaking  according  to  the  strict  meaning 
of  the  words,  and  not  in  the  spirit  of  an  accuser.  I  will  speak 
even  more  plainly;  I  will  say  that  he  has  left  nothing  in  any- 
one's house,  nothing  even  in  the  towns,  nothing  in  public  places, 
not  even  in  the  temples,  nothing  in  the  possession  of  any  Sicilian, 
nothing  in  the  possession  of  any  Roman  citizen ;  that  he  has  left 
nothing,  in  short,  which  either  came  before  his  eyes  or  was  sug- 
gested to  his  mind,  whether  private  property  or  public,  or  pro- 
fane or  sacred,  in  all  Sicily. 

Where  then  shall  I  begin  rather  than  with  that  city  which  was 
above  all  others  in  your  affection,  and  which  was  your  chosen 

425 


426  CICERO 

place  of  enjoyment?  or  with  what  class  of  men  rather  than  with 
your  flatterers?  For  by  that  means  it  will  be  the  more  easily 
seen  how  you  behaved  among  those  men  who  hate  you,  who  ac- 
cuse you,  who  will  not  let  you  rest,  when  you  are  proved  to  have 
plundered  among  the  Mamertines,  who  are  your  friends,  in  the 
most  infamous  manner. 

Caius  Heius  is  a  Mamertine — all  men  will  easily  grant  me  this 
who  have  ever  been  to  Messana;  the  most  accomplished  man  in 
every  point  of  view  in  all  that  city.  His  house  is  the  very  best 
in  all  Messana — most  thoroughly  known,  most  constantly  open, 
most  especially  hospitable  to  all  our  fellow-citizens.  That  house 
before  the  arrival  of  Verres  was  so  splendidly  adorned,  as  to  be  an 
ornament  even  to  the  city.  For  Messana  itself,  which  is  admir- 
able on  account  of  its  situation,  its  fortifications,  and  its  harbor, 
is  very  empty  and  bare  of  those  things  in  which  Verres  delights. 
There  was  in  the  house  of  Heius  a  private  chapel  of  great  sacred- 
ness,  handed  down  to  him  from  his  ancestors,  very  ancient ;  in 
which  he  had  four  very  beautiful  statues,  made  with  the  greatest 
skill,  and  of  very  high  character;  calculated  not  only  to  delight 
Verres,  that  clever  and  accomplished  man,  but  even  any  one  of  us 
whom  he  calls  the  mob:  one,  a  statue  of  Cupid,  in  marble,  a 
work  of  Praxiteles;  for  in  truth,  while  I  have  been  inquiring 
into  that  man's  conduct,  I  have  learned  the  names  of  the  work- 
men; it  was  the  same  workman,  as  I  imagine,  who  made  that 
celebrated  Cupid  of  the  same  figure  as  this  which  is  at  Thespiae, 
on  account  of  which  people  go  to  see  Thespiae,  for  there  is  no 
other  reason  for  going  to  see  it;  and  therefore  that  great  man 
Lucius  Mummius,  when  he  carried  away  from  that  town  the 
statues  of  the  Muses  which  are  now  before  the  temple  of  Good 
Fortune,  and  the  other  statues  which  were  not  consecrated,  did 
not  touch  this  marble  Cupid,  because  it  had  been  consecrated. 

But  to  return  to  that  private  chapel;  there  was  this  statue, 
which  I  am  speaking  of,  of  Cupid,  made  of  marble.  On  the 
other  side  there  was  a  Hercules,  beautifully  made  of  brass;  that 
was  said  to  be  the  work  of  Myron,  as  I  believe,  and  it  undoubted- 
ly was  so.  Also  before  those  gods  there  were  little  altars,  which 
might  indicate  to  anyone  the  holiness  of  the  chapel.  There 
were  besides  two  brazen  statues,  of  no  very  great  size,  but  of 
marvellous  beauty,  in  the  dress  and  robes  of  virgins,  which  with 
uplifted  hands  were  supporting  some  sacred  vessels  which  were 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        427 

placed  on  their  heads,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Athenian  virgins. 
They  were  called  the  Canephoroe,  but  their  maker  was — 
(who?  who  was  he?  thank  you,  you  are  quite  right),  they  called 
him  Polycletus.  Whenever  any  one  of  our  citizens  went  to 
Messana,  he  used  to  go  and  see  these  statues.  They  were 
open  every  day  for  people  to  go  to  see  them.  The  house  was 
not  more  an  ornament  to  its  master,  than  it  was  to  the  city. 

Caius  Claudius,  whose  aedileship  we  know  to  have  been  a  most 
splendid  affair,  used  this  statue  of  Cupid,  as  long  as  he  kept  the 
forum  decorated  in  honor  of  the  immortal  gods  and  the  Roman 
people.  And  as  he  was  connected  by  ties  of  hispitality  with  the 
Heii,  and  was  the  patron  of  the  Mamertine  people — as  he  availed 
himself  of  their  kindness  to  lend  him  this,  so  he  was  careful  to 
restore  it.  There  have  lately  been  noble  men  of  the  same  kind, 
O  judges — why  do  I  say  lately?  Ay,  we  have  seen  some  very 
lately,  a  very  little  while  ago  indeed,  who  have  adorned  the 
forum  and  the  public  buildings,  not  with  the  spoils  of  the  prov- 
inces, but  with  ornaments  belonging  to  their  friends — with 
splendid  things  lent  by  their  own  connections,  not  with  the  pro- 
duce of  the  thefts  of  guilty  men — and  who  afterward  have  re- 
stored the  statues  and  decorations,  each  to  its  proper  owner; 
men  who  have  not  taken  things  away  out  of  the  cities  of  our 
allies  for  the  sake  of  a  four-day  festival,  under  pretence  of  the 
shows  to  be  exhibited  in  their  aedileship, 'and  after  that  carried 
them  off  to  their  own  homes,  and  their  own  villas.  All  these 
statues  which  I  have  mentioned,  O  judges,  Verres  took  away 
from  Heius,  out  of  his  private  chapel.  He  left,  I  say,  not  one  of 
those  things,  nor  anything  else,  except  one  old  wooden  figure, 
Good  Fortune,  as  I  believe ;  that,  forsooth,  he  did  not  choose  to 
have  in  his  house! 

Oh,  for  the  good  faith  of  gods  and  men !  What  is  the  meaning 
of  all  this?  What  a  cause  is  this!  What  impudence  is  this! 
The  statues  which  I  am  speaking  of,  before  they  were  taken 
away  by  you,  no  commander  ever  came  to  Messana  without  see- 
ing. So  many  praetors,  so  many  consuls  as  there  have  been  in 
Sicily,  in  time  of  peace,  and  in  time  of  war;  so  many  men  of 
every  sort  as  there  have  been — I  do  not  speak  of  upright,  inno- 
cent, conscientious  men,  but  so  many  covetous,  so  many  auda- 
cious, so  many  infamous  men  as  there  have  been,  not  one  of  them 
all  was  violent  enough,  or  seemed  to  himself  powerful  enough  or 


428  CICERO 

noble  enough,  to  venture  to  ask  for,  or  to  take  away,  or  even  to 
touch  anything  in  that  chapel.  Shall  Verres  take  away  every- 
thing which  is  most  beautiful  everywhere?  Shall  it  not  be  al- 
lowed to  anyone  besides  to  have  anything?  Shall  that  one 
house  of  his  contain  so  many  wealthy  houses?  Was  it  for  this 
reason  that  none  of  his  predecessors  ever  touched  these  things, 
that  he  might  be  able  to  carry  them  off?  Was  this  the  reason 
why  Caius  Claudius  Pulcher  restored  them,  that  Caius  Verres 
might  be  able  to  steal  them?  But  that  Cupid  had  no  wish 
for  the  house  of  a  pimp  and  the  establishment  of  a  harlot; 
he  was  quite  content  to  stay  in  that  chapel  where  he  was  heredi- 
tary; he  knew  that  he  had  been  left  to  Heius  by  his  ancestors, 
with  the  rest  of  the  sacred  things  which  he  inherited;  he  did  not 
require  the  heir  of  a  prostitute.  But  why  am  I  borne  on  so  im- 
petuously? I  shall  in  a  moment  be  refuted  by  one  word.  "  I 
bought  it,"  says  he.  O  ye  immortal  gods,  what  a  splendid  de- 
fence! we  sent  a  broker  into  the  province  with  military  com- 
mand and  with  the  forces,  to  buy  up  all  the  statues,  all  the  paint- 
ings, all  the  silver  plate  and  gold  plate,  and  ivory,  and  jewels,  and 
to  leave  nothing  to  anybody.  For  this  defence  seems  to  me  to 
be  got  ready  for  everything;  that  he  bought  them.  In  the  first 
place,  if  I  should  grant  to  you  that  which  you  wish,  namely, 
that  you  bought  them,  since  against  all  this  class  of  accusations 
you  are  going  to  use  this  defence  alone,  I  ask  what  sort  of  tribu- 
nals you  thought  that  there  would  be  at  Rome,  if  you  thought 
that  anyone  would  grant  you  this,  that  you  in  your  praetorship 
and  in  your  command  bought  up  so  many  and  such  valuable 
things — everything,  in  short,  which  was  of  any  value  in  the 
whole  province. 

Remark  the  care  of  our  ancestors,  who  as  yet  suspected  no 
such  conduct  as  this,  but  yet  provided  against  the  things  which 
might  happen  in  affairs  of  small  importance.  They  thought 
that  no  one  who  had  gone  as  governor1  or  as  lieutenant  into  a 

1  The    Latin    word    in    each    case    is  narrower  one ;  in  its  wider  signification 

potestas.      "  According    to    Paulus,    po-  it   might  mean   all  the  power  that  was 

testas,    as    applied    to    a    magistrate,    is  delegated   to   any   person    by   the   state, 

equivalent   to    imperium.      .      .      .      But  whatever   might   be   the   extent   of   that 

potestas  is  applied   to   magistrates  who  power;   in  its  narrower  signification,   it 

had  not  the  imperium,  as,  for  instance,  was  on  the  one  hand  equivalent  to  im- 

to  quaestors  and  tribunes  of  the  people;  perium,   and  on  the  other   it  expressed 

and    potestas    and    imperium    are    often  the    power    of   those    functionaries   who 

opposed  in  Cicero.     Thus  it  seems  that  had    not    the    imperium." — Smith,    Dic- 

potestas,  like  many  other  Roman  terms,  tionary  of  Antiquities,  p.  721,  v.  Potestas. 
had    both    a    wider    signification    and    a 


THE   PROSECUTION    OF   VERRES  429 

province  would  be  so  insane  as  to  buy  silver,  for  that  was  given 
him  out  of  the  public  funds;  or  raiment,  for  that  was  afforded 
him  by  the  laws;  they  thought  he  might  buy  a  slave,  a  thing 
which  we  all  use,  and  which  is  not  provided  by  the  laws.  They 
made  a  law,  therefore,  "  that  no  one  should  buy  a  slave  except  in 
the  room  of  a  slave  who  was  dead."  If  any  slave  had  died  at 
Rome?  No,  if  anyone  had  died  in  the  place  where  his  master 
was.  For  they  did  not  mean  you  to  furnish  your  house  in  the 
province,  but  to  be  of  use  to  the  province  in  its  necessities. 
What  was  the  reason  why  they  so  carefully  kept  us  from  mak- 
ing purchases  in  the  provinces?  This  was  it,  O  judges,  because 
they  thought  it  a  robbery,  not  a  purchase,  when  the  seller  was 
not  allowed  to  sell  on  his  own  terms.  And  they  were  aware  that 
in  the  provinces,  if  he  who  was  there  with  the  command  and 
power  of  a  governor  wished  to  purchase  what  was  in  anyone's 
possession,  and  was  allowed  to  do  so,  it  would  come  to  pass  that 
he  would  get  whatever  he  chose,  whether  it  was  to  be  sold  or 
not,  at  whatever  price  he  pleased.  Someone  will  say,  "  Do  not 
deal  with  Verres  in  that  manner;  do  not  try  and  examine  his 
actions  by  the  standard  of  old-fashioned  conscientiousness;  allow 
him  to  have  bought  them  without  being  punished  for  it,  provided 
he  bought  them  in  a  fair  way,  not  through  any  arbitrary  exercise 
of  power,  nor  from  anyone  against  his  will,  or  by  violence."  I 
will  so  deal  with  him.  If  Heius  had  anything  for  sale,  if  he  sold 
it  for  the  price  at  which  he  valued  it,  I  give  up  inquiring  why  you 
bought  it. 

What  then  are  we  to  do?  Are  we  to  use  arguments  in  a  case 
of  this  sort?  We  must  ask,  I  suppose,  whether  Heius  was  in 
debt,  whether  he  had  an  auction;  if  he  had,  whether  he  was  in 
such  difficulties  about  money  matters,  whether  he  was  oppressed 
by  such  want,  by  such  necessity,  as  to  strip  his  private  chapel,  to 
sell  his  paternal  gods.  But  I  see  that  the  man  had  no  auction ; 
that  he  never  sold  anything  except  the  produce  of  his  land ;  that 
he  not  only  had  no  debts,  but  that  he  had  always  abundance  of 
ready  money.  Even  if  all  these  things  were  contrary  to  what  I 
say  they  were,  still  I  say  that  he  would  not  have  sold  things 
which  had  been  so  many  years  in  the  household  and  chapel  of 
his  ancestors.  "  What  will  you  say  if  he  was  persuaded  by  the 
greatness  of  the  sum  given  him  for  them  ?  "  It  is  not  probable 
that  a  man,  rich  as  he  was,  honorable  as  he  was,  should  have 


430  CICERO 

preferred  money  to  his  own  religious  feelings  and  to  the  memo- 
rials of  his  ancestors.  "  That  may  be,  yet  men  are  sometimes 
led  away  from  their  habits  and  principles  by  large  sums  of 
money."  Let  us  see,  then,  how  great  a  sum  this  was  which  could 
turn  Heius,  a  man  of  exceeding  riches,  by  no  means  covetous, 
away  from  decency,  from  affection,  and  from  religion.  You 
ordered  him,  I  suppose,  to  enter  in  his  account-books,  "  All  these 
statues  of  Praxiteles,  of  Myron,  of  Polycletus,  were  sold  to 
Verres  for  six  thousand  five  hundred  sesterces."  Read  the  ex- 
tracts from  his  accounts. 

[The  accounts  of  Heius  are  read.] 

I  am  delighted  that  the  illustrious  names  of  these  workmen, 
whom  those  men  extol  to  the  skies,  have  fallen  so  low  in  the 
estimation  of  Verres — the  Cupid  of  Praxiteles  for  sixteen  hun- 
dred sesterces.  From  that  forsooth  has  come  the  proverb,  "  I 
had  rather  buy  it  than  ask  for  it." 

Someone  will  say,  "  What !  do  you  value  those  things  at  a 
very  high  price?"  But  I  am  not  valuing  them  according  to 
any  calculation  of  my  own,  or  any  need  which  I  have  for  them; 
but  I  think  that  the  matter  ought  to  be  looked  at  by  you  in  this 
light  •  What  is  the  value  of  these  things  in  the  opinion  of  those 
men  who  are  judges  of  these  things;  at  what  price  they  are  ac- 
customed to  be  sold;  at  what  price  these  very  things  could  be 
sold,  if  they  were  sold  openly  and  freely;  lastly,  at  what  price 
Verres  himself  values  them?  For  he  would  never  have  been  so 
foolish,  if  he  had  thought  that  Cupid  worth  only  four  hundred 
denarii,  as  to  allow  himself  to  be  made  a  subject  for  the  common 
conversation  and  general  reproach  of  men.  Who  then  of  you 
all  is  ignorant  at  how  great  a  price  these  things  are  valued? 
Have  we  not  seen  at  an  auction  a  brazen  statue  of  no  great  size 
sold  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  sesterces?  What  if  I 
were  to  choose  to  name  men  who  have  bought  similar  things  for 
no  less  a  price,  or  even  for  a  higher  one?  Can  I  not  do  so?  In 
truth,  the  only  limit  to  the  valuation  of  such  things  is  the  desire 
which  anyone  has  for  them,  for  it  is  difficult  to  set  bounds  to  the 
price  unless  you  first  set  bounds  to  the  wish.  I  see  then  that 
Heius  was  neither  led  by  his  inclination,  nor  by  any  temporary 
difficulties,  nor  by  the  greatness  of  the  sum  given,  to  sell  these 
statues;  and  that  you,  under  the  pretence  of  purchase  which  you 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        431 

put  forward,  in  reality  seized  and  took  away  these  things  by 
force,  through  fear,  by  your  power  and  authority,  from  that 
man,  whom,  along  with  the  rest  of  our  allies  in  that  country,  the 
Roman  people  had  intrusted  not  only  to  your  power,  but  also  to 
your  upright  exercise  of  it.  What  can  there  be,  judges,  so  de- 
sirable for  me  in  making  this  charge,  as  that  Heius  should  say 
this  same  thing?  Nothing  certainly;  but  let  us  not  wish  for 
what  is  difficult  to  be  obtained.  Heius  is  a  Mamertine.  The 
state  of  the  Mamertines  alone,  by  a  common  resolution,  praises 
that  man  in  the  name  of  the  city.  To  all  the  rest  of  the  Sicilians 
he  is  an  object  of  hatred;  by  the  Mamertines  alone  is  he  liked. 
But  of  that  deputation  which  has  been  sent  to  utter  his  praises, 
Heius  is  the  chief  man;  in  truth,  he  is  the  chief  man  of  his  city, 
and  too  much  occupied  in  discharging  the  public  duties  imposed 
upon  him  to  speak  of  his  private  injuries.  Though  I  was  aware 
of  and  had  given  weight  to  these  considerations,  still,  O  judges, 
I  trusted  myself  to  Heius.  I  produced  him  at  the  first  pleading; 
and  indeed  I  did  it  without  any  danger,  for  what  answer  could 
Heius  give  even  if  he  turned  out  a  dishonest  man,  and  unlike 
himself?  Could  he  say  that  these  statues  were  at  his  house,  and 
not  with  Verres?  How  could  he  say  anything  of  that  sort?  If 
he  were  the  basest  of  men,  and  were  inclined  to  lie  most  shame- 
lessly, he  would  say  this:  that  he  had  had  them  for  sale,  and 
that  he  had  sold  them  at  the  price  he  wanted  for  them.  The  man 
the  most  noble  in  all  his  city,  who  was  especially  anxious  that 
you  should  have  a  high  opinion  of  his  conscientiousness  and  of 
his  worth,  says  first,  that  he  spoke  in  Verres's  praise  by  the 
public  authority  of  his  city,  because  that  commission  had  been 
given  to  him ;  secondly,  that  he  had  not  had  these  things  for  sale, 
and  that,  if  he  had  been  allowed  to  do  what  he  wished,  he  could 
never  have  been  induced  by  any  terms  to  sell  those  things  which 
were  in  his  private  chapel,  having  been  left  to  him  and  handed 
down  to  him  from  his  ancestors. 

Why  are  you  sitting  there,  O  Verres?  What  are  you  waiting 
for?  Why  do  you  say  you  are  hemmed  in  and  overwhelmed  by 
the  cities  of  Centuripa,  of  Catina,  of  Halesa,  of  Tyndaris,  of 
Enna,  of  Agyrium,  and  by  all  the  other  cities  of  Sicily?  Your 
second  country,  as  you  used  to  call  it,  Messana  herself  attacks 
you;  your  own  Messana,  I  say;  the  assistant  in  your  crimes,  the 
witness  of  your  lusts,  the  receiver  of  your  booty  and  your  thefts. 


432  CICERO 

For  the  most  honorable  man  of  that  city  is  present,  a  deputy  sent 
from  his  home  on  account  of  this  very  trial,  the  chief  actor  in  the 
panegyric  on  you;  who  praises  you  by  the  public  order  of  his 
city,  for  so  he  has  been  charged  and  commanded  to  do.  Al- 
though you  recollect,  O  judges,  what  he  answered  when  he  was 
asked  about  the  ship;  that  it  had  been  built  by  public  labor,  at 
the  public  expense,  and  that  a  Mamertine  senator  had  been  ap- 
pointed by  the  public  authority  to  superintend  its  building. 
Heius  in  his  private  capacity  flees  to  you  for  aid,  O  judges;  he 
avails  himself  of  this  law,  the  common  fortress  of  our  allies,  by 
which  this  tribunal  is  established.  Although  there  is  a  law  for 
recovering  money  which  has  been  unjustly  extorted,  he  says  that 
he  does  not  seek  to  recover  any  money;  which,  though  it  has 
been  taken  from  him,  he  does  not  so  much  care  about;  but  he 
says  he  does  demand  back  from  you  the  sacred  images  belong- 
ing to  his  ancestors,  he  does  demand  back  from  you  his  heredi- 
tary household  gods.  Have  you  any  shame,  O  Verres?  have 
you  any  religion?  have  you  any  fear?  You  have  lived  in  Heius's 
house  at  Messana;  you  saw  him  almost  daily  performing  sacred 
rites  in  his  private  chapel  before  those  gods.  He  is  not  influ- 
enced by  money;  he  does  not  even  ask  to  have  those  things  re- 
stored which  were  merely  ornaments.  Keep  the  Canephorae; 
restore  the  images  of  the  gods.  And  because  he  said  this,  be- 
cause after  a  given  time  he,  an  ally  and  friend  of  the  Roman 
people,  addressed  his  complaints  to  you  in  a  moderate  tone,  be- 
cause he  was  very  attentive  to  religious  obligation  not  only  while 
demanding  back  his  paternal  gods,  but  also  in  giving  his  evi- 
dence on  oath ;  know  that  one  of  the  deputies  has  been  sent  back 
to  Messana,  that  very  man  who  superintended  the  building  of 
that  ship  at  the  public  expense,  to  demand  from  the  Senate  that 
Heius  should  be  condemned  to  an  ignominious  punishment. 

O  most  insane  of  men,  what  did  you  think?  that  you  should 
obtain  what  you  requested?  Did  you  not  know  how  greatly  he 
was  esteemed  by  his  fellow-citizens ;  how  great  his  influence  was 
considered?  But  suppose  you  had  obtained  your  request:  sup- 
pose that  the  Mamertines  had  passed  any  severe  vote  against 
Heius,  what  do  you  think  would  have  been  the  authority  of  their 
panegyric,  if  they  had  decreed  punishment  to  the  man  who  it  was 
notorious  had  given  true  evidence?  Although,  what  sort  of 
praise  is  that,  when  he  who  utters  it,  being  questioned,  is  com- 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        433 

pelled  to  give  answers  injurious  to  him  whom  he  is  praising? 
What!  are  not  those  who  are  praising  you  my  witnesses? 
Heius  is  an  encomiast  of  yours;  he  has  done  you  the  most 
serious  injury.  I  will  bring  forward  the  rest;  they  will  gladly 
be  silent  about  all  that  they  are  allowed  to  suppress;  they  will 
say  what  they  cannot  help  saying,  unwillingly.  Can  they  deny 
that  a  transport  of  the  largest  size  was  built  for  that  man  at 
Messana?  Let  them  deny  it  if  they  can.  Can  they  deny  that  a 
Mamertine  senator  was  appointed  by  the  public  authority  to 
superintend  the  building  of  that  ship?  I  wish  they  would  deny 
it.  There  are  other  points  also  which  I  prefer  reserving  unmen- 
tioned  at  present,  in  order  to  give  as  little  time  as  possible  to 
them  for  planning  and  arranging  their  perjury.  Let  this  praise, 
then,  be  placed  to  your  account;  let  these  men  come  to  your  re- 
lief with  their  authority,  who  neither  ought'  to  help  you  if  they 
were  able,  nor  could  do  so  if  they  wished;  on  whom  in  their  pri- 
vate capacity  you  have  inflicted  many  injuries,  and  put  many 
affronts,  while  in  their  city  you  have  dishonored  many  families 
forever  by  your  adulteries  and  crimes.  "  But  you  have  been  of 
public  service  to  their  city."  Not  without  great  injury  to  the 
republic  and  to  the  province  of  Sicily.  They  were  bound  to 
supply  and  they  used  to  supply  sixty  thousand  modii  of  wheat 
to  the  Roman  people  for  payment;  that  was  remitted  by  you  of 
your  own  sole  authority.  The  republic  was  injured  because  by 
your  means  its  right  of  dominion  over  one  city  was  disparaged; 
the  Sicilians  were  injured,  because  this  quantity  was  not  de- 
ducted from  the  total  amount  of  the  corn  to  be  provided  by  the 
island,  but  was  only  transferred  to  the  cities  of  Centuripa  and 
Halesa,  whose  inhabitants  were  exempt  from  that  tax;  and  on 
them  a  greater  burden  was  imposed  than  they  were  able  to  bear. 
It  was  your  duty  to  require  them  to  furnish  a  ship,  in  compliance 
with  the  treaty.  You  remitted  it  for  three  years.  During  all 
those  years  you  never  demanded  one  soldier.  You  acted  as 
pirates  are  accustomed  to  act,  who,  though  they  are  the  common 
enemies  of  all  men,  still  select  some  friends,  whom  they  not  only 
spare,  but  even  enrich  with  their  booty;  and  especially  such  as 
have  a  town  in  a  convenient  situation,  where  they  often,  and 
sometimes  even  necessarily,  put  in  with  their  vessels. 

The  town  of  Phaselis,  which  Publius  Servilius  took,  had  not 
been  in  former  times  a  city  of  Cilicians  and  pirates.    The  Lyci- 
28 


434  CICERO 

ans,  a  Greek  tribe,  inhabited  it;  but  because  it  was  in  such  a 
situation  as  it  was,  and  because  it  projected  into  the  sea,  so  that 
pirates  from  Cilicia  often  necessarily  touched  at  it  when  depart- 
ing on  an  expedition,  and  were  also  often  borne  thither  on  their 
retreats,  the  pirates  connected  that  city  with  themselves;  at  first 
by  commercial  intercourse,  and  afterward  by  a  regular  alliance. 
The  city  of  the  Mamertines  was  not  formerly  of  bad  character; 
it  was  even  a  city  hostile  to  dishonest  men,  and  detained  the  lug- 
gage of  Caius  Cato,  the  one  who  was  consul.  But  then  what 
sort  of  a  man  was  he?  a  most  eminent  and  most  influential  man ; 
who,  however,  though  he  had  been  consul,  was  convicted.  So 
Caius  Cato,  the  grandson  of  two  most  illustrious  men,  Lucius 
Paullus  and  Marcus  Cato,  and  the  son  of  the  sister  of  Publius 
Africanus,  who,  even  when  convicted,  at  a  time  when  severe 
judgments  were  in  the  habit  of  being  passed,  found  the  damages 
to  which  he  was  liable  only  estimated  at  eighteen  thousand  ses- 
terces; with  this  man,  I  say,  the  Mamertines  were  angry,  who 
have  often  expended  a  greater  sum  than  the  damages  in  the 
action  against  Cato  were  laid  at,  in  one  banquet  for  Timarchides. 
But  this  city  was  the  Phaselis  for  that  robber  and  pirate  of 
Sicily.  Hither  everything  was  brought  from  all  quarters ;  with 
them  it  was  left;  whatever  required  to  be  concealed,  they  kept 
separate  and  stored  away.  By  their  agency  he  contrived  every- 
thing which  he  wished  put  on  board  ship  privily,  and  exported 
secretly;  and  in  their  harbor  he  contrived  to  have  a  vessel  of 
the  largest  size  built,  for  him  to  send  to  Italy  loaded  with  plun- 
der. In  return  for  these  services  he  gave  them  immunity  from 
all  expense,  all  labor,  all  military  service,  in  short,  from  every- 
thing. For  three  years  they  were  the  only  people,  not  only  in 
Sicily,  but,  according  to  my  opinion,  in  the  whole  world  at  such 
a  time,  who  enjoyed  excuse,  relief,  freedom,  and  immunity  from 
every  sort  of  expense,  and  trouble,  and  office.  Hence  arose  that 
Verrean  festival;  hence  it  was  that  he  ventured  to  order  Sextus 
Cominius  to  be  dragged  before  him  at  a  banquet,  at  whom  he 
attempted  to  throw  a  goblet,  whom  he  ordered  to  be  seized  by 
the  throat,  and  to  be  hurried  from  the  banquet  and  thrown  into  a 
dark  prison;  hence  came  that  cross,  on  which,  in  the  sight  of 
many  men,  he  suspended  a  Roman  citizen ;  that  cross  which  he 
never  ventured  to  erect  anywhere  except  among  that  people, 
whom  he  had  made  sharers  in  all  his  crimes  and  robberies. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        435 

Do  you,  O  Mamertines!  dare  to  come  to  praise  anyone?  By 
what  authority?  by  that  which  you  ought  to  have  with  the  sena- 
torial order?  by  that  which  you  ought  to  have  with  the  Roman 
people?  Is  there  any  city,  not  only  in  our  provinces,  but  in  the 
most  distant  nations,  either  so  powerful,  or  so  free,  or  so  savage 
and  uncivilized?  is  there  any  king,  who  would  not  invite  a  sena- 
tor of  the  Roman  people  to  his  house  and  to  his  home?  An 
honor  which  is  paid  not  only  to  the  man,  but  in  the  first  place  to 
the  Roman  people,  by  whose  indulgence  we  have  risen  to  this 
order,  and  secondly  to  the  authority  of  this  order;  and  unless 
that  is  respected  among  our  allies,  where  will  be  the  name  and 
dignity  of  the  empire  among  foreign  nations?  The  Mamertines 
did  not  give  me  any  public  invitation — when  I  say  me,  that  is  a 
trifle;  but  when  they  did  not  invite  a  senator  of  the  Roman 
people,  they  withheld  an  honor  due  not  to  the  man  but  to  his 
order.  For  to  Tullius  himself,  the  most  splendid  and  magnifi- 
cent house  of  Cnaeus  Pompeius  Basilicus  was  opened;  with 
whom  he  would  have  lodged  even  if  he  had  been  invited  by  you. 
There  was  also  the  most  honorable  house  of  the  Percennii,  who 
are  now  also  called  Pompeius;  where  Lucius  my  brother  lodged 
and  was  received  by  them  with  the  greatest  eagerness.  A 
senator  of  the  Roman  people,  as  far  as  depended  on  you  as  a 
body,  lay  in  your  town,  and  passed  the  night  in  the  public  streets. 
No  other  city  ever  did  such  a  thing.  "  Yes,"  say  you,  "  for  you 
were  instituting  a  prosecution  against  our  friend."  Will  you 
put  your  own  interpretation  on  what  private  business  I  have  of 
my  own,  by  diminishing  the  honor  due  to  the  Senate?  But  I 
will  make  my  complaint  of  this  conduct,  if  ever  the  time  comes 
that  there  is  any  discussion  concerning  you  among  that  body, 
which,  up  to  this  time,  has  been  affronted  by  no  one  but  you. 
With  what  face  have  you  presented  yourself  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Roman  people?  when  you  have  not  yet  pulled  down  that 
cross,  which  is  even  now  stained  with  the  blood  of  a  Roman 
citizen,  which  is  fixed  up  in  your  city  by  the  harbor,  and  have 
not  thrown  it  into  the  sea  and  purified  all  that  place,  before  you 
came  to  Rome,  and  before  this  tribunal.  On  the  territory  of  the 
Mamertines,  connected  with  us  by  treaty,  at  peace  with  us,  is 
that  monument  of  your  cruelty  raised.  Is  not  your  city  the  only 
one  where,  when  anyone  arrives  at  it  from  Italy,  he  sees  the 
cross  of  a  Roman  citizen  before  he  sees  any  friend  of  the  Roman 


436  CICERO 

people?  which  you  are  in  the  habit  of  displaying  to  the  people  of 
Rhegium,  whose  city  you  envy,  and  to  your  inhabitants,  Roman 
citizens  as  they  are,  to  make  them  think  less  of  themselves,  and 
be  less  inclined  to  despise  you,  when  they  see  the  privileges  of 
our  citizenship  extinguished  by  such  a  punishment. 

But  you  say  you  bought  these  things?  What?  did  you  for- 
get to  purchase  of  the  same  Heius  that  Attalic  2  tapestry,  cele- 
brated over  the  whole  of  Sicily?  You  might  have  bought  them 
in  the  same  way  as  you  did  the  statues.  For  what  did  you  do? 
Did  you  wish  to  spare  the  account-books?  This  escaped  the 
notice  of  that  stupid  man;  he  thought  that  what  he  stole  from 
the  wardrobe  would  be  less  notorious  than  what  he  had  stolen 
from  the  private  chapel.  But  how  did  he  get  it?  I  cannot  re- 
late it  more  plainly  than  Heius  himself  related  it  before  you. 
When  I  asked,  whether  any  other  part  of  his  property  had  come 
to  Verres,  he  answered  that  he  had  sent  him  orders  to  send  the 
tapestry  to  Agrigentum  to  him.  I  asked  whether  he  had  sent  it. 
He  replied  as  he  must,  that  is,  that  he  had  been  obedient  to  the 
praetor;  that  he  had  sent  it.  I  asked  whether  it  had  arrived  at 
Agrigentum;  he  said  it  had  arrived.  I  asked  in  what  condition 
it  had  returned;  he  said  it  had  not  returned  yet.  There  was  a 
laugh  and  a  murmur  from  all  the  people.  Did  it  never  occur  to 
you  in  this  instance  to  order  him  to  make  an  entry  in  his  books, 
that  he  had  sold  you  this  tapestry  too,  for  six  thousand  five  hun- 
dred sesterces?  Did  you  fear  that  your  debts  would  increase,  if 
these  things  were  to  cost  you  six  thousand  five  hundred  ses- 
terces, which  you  could  easily  sell  for  two  hundred  thousand? 
It  was  worth  that,  believe  me.  You  would  have  been  able  to 
defend  yourself  if  you  had  given  that  sum  for  it.  No  one  would 
then  have  asked  how  much  it  was  worth.  If  you  could  only 
prove  that  you  had  bought  it,  you  could  easily  make  your  causa 
and  your  conduct  appear  reasonable  to  anyone.  But  as  it  is, 
you  have  no  way  of  getting  out  of  your  difficulty  about  the 
tapestry.  What  shall  I  say  next?  Did  you  take  away  by  force 
some  splendid  harness,  which  is  said  to  have  belonged  to  King 
Hiero,  from  Philarchus  of  Centuripa,  a  wealthy  and  high-born 
man,  or  did  you  buy  it  of  him?  When  I  was  in  Sicily,  this  is 
what  I  heard  from  the  Centuripans  and  from  everybody  else, 

'  Attains,  king  of  Pergamus,  had  been        with  gold  threads  interwoven  in  it  was 
the  inventor  of  weaving  gold  thread  into        called  by  his  name, 
tapestry    work,    and    therefore    tapestry 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF   VERRES 


437 


for  the  case  was  very  notorious;  people  said  that  you  had  taken 
away  this  harness  from  Philarchus  of  Centuripa,  and  other  very 
beautiful  harness  from  Aristus  of  Panormus,  and  a  third  set 
from  Cratippus  of  Tyndarus.  Indeed,  if  Philarchus  had  sold  it 
to  you,  you  would  not,  after  the  prosecution  was  instituted 
against  you,  have  promised  to  restore  it.  But  because  you  saw 
that  many  people  knew  of  it,  you  thought  that  if  you  restored  it 
to  him,  you  would  only  have  so  much  the  less,  but  the  original 
transaction  would  be  proved  against  you  nevertheless;  and  so 
you  did  not  restore  it.  Philarchus  said  in  his  evidence,  that 
when  he  became  acquainted  with  this  disease  of  yours,  as  your 
friends  call  it,  he  wished  to  conceal  from  you  the  knowledge  of 
the  existence  of  this  harness;  that  when  he  was  summoned  by 
you,  he  said  that  he  had  not  got  any;  and  indeed,  that  he  had 
removed  them  to  another  person's  house,  that  they  might  not  be 
found ;  but  that  your  instinct  was  so  great,  that  you  saw  them  by 
the  assistance  of  the  very  man  in  whose  custody  they  were  de- 
posited; that  then  he  could  not  deny  that  you  had  found  him 
out,  and  so  that  the  harness  was  taken  from  him  against  his  will, 
and  without  any  payment. 

Now,  O  judges,  it  is  worth  your  while  to  know  how  he  was 
accustomed  to  find  and  trace  out  all  these  things.  There  are 
two  brothers,  citizens  of  Cibyra,  Tlepolemus  and  Hiero,  one  of 
whom,  I  believe,  was  accustomed  to  model  in  wax,  the  other 
was  a  painter.  I  fancy  these  men,  as  they  had  become  suspected 
by  their  fellow-citizens  of  having  plundered  the  temple  of  Apollo 
at  Cibyra,  fearing  a  trial  and  the  punishment  of  the  law,  had  fled 
from  their  homes.  As  they  had  known  that  Verres  was  a  great 
connoisseur  of  such  works  as  theirs,  at  the  time  that  he,  as  you 
learned  from  the  witnesses,  came  to  Cibyra  with  fictitious  bills  of 
exchange,  they,  when  flying  from  their  homes  as  exiles,  came 
to  him  when  he  was  in  Asia.  He  has  kept  them  with  him  ever 
since  that  time;  and  in  the  robberies  he  committed,  and  in  the 
booty  he  acquired  during  his  lieutenancy,  he  greatly  availed 
himself  of  their  assistance  and  their  advice.  These  are  the  men 
who  were  meant  when  Quintus  Tadius  made  an  entry  in  his 
books  that  he  had  given  things  by  Verres's  order  to  some  Greek 
painters.  They  were  already  well  known  to,  and  had  been 
thoroughly  tried  by  him,  when  he  took  them  with  him  into 
Sicily.  And  when  they  arrived  there,  they  scented  out  and 


438  CICERO 

tracked  everything  in  so  marvellous  a  manner  (you  might  have 
thought  they  were  blood-hounds),  that,  wherever  anything  was, 
they  found  it  out  by  some  means  or  other.  Some  things  they 
found  out  by  threatening,  some  by  promising;  this  by  means  of 
slaves,  that  through  freemen;  one  thing  by  a  friend,  another  by 
an  enemy.  Whatever  pleased  them  was  sure  to  be  lost.  They 
whose  plate  was  demanded  had  nothing  else  to  hope,  than  that 
Tlepolemus  and  Hiero  might  not  approve  of  it. 

I  will  relate  to  you  this  fact,  O  judges,  most  truly.  I  recollect 
that  Pamphilus  of  Lilybaeum,  a  connection  of  mine  by  ties  of 
hospitality,  and  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  a  man  of  the  highest! 
birth,  told  me,  that  when  that  man  had  taken  from  him,  by  his 
absolute  power,  an  ewer  made  by  the  hand  of  Boethus,  of  ex- 
quisite workmanship  and  great  weight,  he  went  home  very  sad 
in  truth,  and  greatly  agitated,  because  a  vessel  of  that  sort,  which 
had  been  left  to  him  by  his  father  and  his  forefathers,  and  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  use  on  days  of  festival,  and  on  the  arrival 
of  ancient  friends,  had  been  taken  from  him.  While  I  was  sit- 
ting at  home,  said  he,  in  great  indignation,  up  comes  one  of  the 
slaves  of  Venus;  he  orders  me  immediately  to  bring  to  the 
praetor  some  embossed  goblets.  I  was  greatly  vexed,  said  he; 
I  had  two ;  I  ordered  them  both  to  be  taken  out  of  the  closet,  lest 
any  worse  thing  should  happen,  and  to  be  brought  after  me  to 
the  praetor's  house.  When  I  got  there  the  praetor  was  asleep;  the 
Cibyratic  brothers  were  walking  about,  and  when  they  saw  me, 
they  said,  Pamphilus,  where  are  the  cups?  I  show  them  with 
great  grief;  they  praise  them.  I  begin  to  complain  that  I  shall 
have  nothing  left  of  any  value  at  all,  if  my  cups  too  were  taken 
away.  Then  they,  when  they  see  me  vexed,  say,  What  are  you 
willing  to  give  us  to  prevent  these  from  being  taken  from  you? 
To  make  my  story  short,  I  said  that  I  would  give  six  hundred 
sesterces.  Meantime  the  praetor  summons  us  ;  he  asks  for  the 
cups.  Then  they  began  to  say  to  the  praetor,  that  they  had 
thought  from  what  they  had  heard,  that  Pamphilus's  cups  were 
of  some  value,  but  that  they  were  miserable  things,  quite  un- 
worthy of  Verres's  having  them  among  his  plate.  He  said  he 
thought  so  too.  So  Pamphilus  saved  his  exquisite  goblets. 
And  indeed,  before  I  heard  this,  though  I  knew  that  it  was  a 
very  trifling  sort  of  accomplishment  to  understand  things  of  that 
sort,  yet  I  used  to  wonder  that  he  had  any  knowledge  of  them 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  439 

at  all,  as  I  knew  that  in  nothing  whatever  had  he  any  qualities 
like  a  man. 

But  when  I  heard  this,  I  then  for  the  first  time  understood 
that  that  was  the  use  of  these  two  Cibyratic  brothers;  that  in  his 
robberies  he  used  his  own  hands,  but  their  eyes.  But  he  was  so 
covetous  of  that  splendid  reputation  of  being  thought  to  be  a 
judge  of  such  matters,  that  lately  (just  observe  the  man's  mad- 
ness), after  his  case  was  adjourned,  when  he  was  already  as  good 
as  condemned,  and  civilly  dead,  at  the  time  of  the  games  of  the 
circus,  when  early  in  the  morning  the  couches  were  spread  in 
preparation  for  a  banquet  at  the  house  of  Lucius  Sisenna,  a  man 
of  the  first  consideration,  and  when  the  plate  was  all  set  out,  and 
when,  as  was  suited  to  the  dignity  of  Lucius  Sisenna,  the  house 
was  full  of  honorable  men,  he  came  to  the  plate,  and  began  in  a 
leisurely  way  to  examine  and  consider  every  separate  piece. 
Some  marvelled  at  the  folly  of  the  man,  who,  while  his  trial  was 
actually  going  on,  was  increasing  the  suspicion  of  that  covetous- 
ness  of  which  he  was  accused ;  others  marvelled  at  his  insensi- 
bility, that  any  such  things  could  come  into  his  head,  when  the 
time  for  judgment  in  his  cause  was  so  near  at  hand,  and  when  so 
many  witnesses  had  spoken  against  him.  But  Sisenna's  ser- 
vants, who,  I  suppose,  had  heard  the  evidence  which  had  been 
given  against  him,  never  took  their  eyes  off  him,  and  never  de- 
parted out  of  reach  of  the  plate.  It  is  the  part  of  a  sagacious 
judge,  from  small  circumstances  to  form  his  opinion  of  every 
man's  covetousness  or  incontinence.  And  will  anyone  believe 
that  this  man,  when  praetor,  was  able  to  keep  either  his  covetous- 
ness  or  his  hands  from  the  plate  of  the  Sicilians,  when,  though  a 
defendant,  and  a  defendant  within  two  days  of  judgment,  a  man 
in  reality,  and  in  the  opinion  of  all  men  as  good  as  already  con- 
demned, he  could  not  in  a  large  assembly  restrain  himself  from 
handling  and  examining  the  plate  of  Lucius  Sisenna? 

But  that  my  discourse  may  return  to  Lilybaeum,  from  which 
I  have  made  this  digression,  there  is  a  man  named  Diocles,  the 
son-in-law  of  Pamphilus,  of  that  Pamphilus  from  whom  the 
ewer  was  taken  away,  whose  surname  is  Popillius.  From  this 
man  he  took  away  every  article  on  his  sideboard  where  his  plate 
was  set  out.  He  may  say,  if  he  pleases,  that  he  had  bought  them. 
In  fact,  in  this  case,  by  reason  of  the  magnitude  of  the  robbery, 
an  entry  of  it,  I  imagine,  has  been  made  in  the  account-books. 


440 


CICERO 


He  ordered  Timarchides  to  value  the  plate.  How  did  he  do  it? 
At  as  low  a  price  as  anyone  ever  valued  anything  presented  to 
an  actor.  Although  I  have  been  for  some  time  acting  foolishly 
in  saying  so  much  about  your  purchases,  and  in  asking  whether 
you  bought  the  things,  and  how,  and  at  what  price  you  bought 
them,  when  I  can  settle  all  that  by  one  word.  Produce  me  a 
written  list  of  what  plate  you  acquired  in  the  province  of  Sicily, 
from  whom,  and  at  what  price  you  bought  each  article.  What 
will  you  do?  Though  I  ought  not  to  ask  you  for  these  ac- 
counts, for  I  ought  to  have  your  account-books  and  to  produce 
them.  But  you  say  that  you  never  kept  any  accounts  of  your 
expenses  in  these  years.  Make  me  out  at  least  this  one  which  I 
am  asking  for,  the  account  of  the  plate,  and  I  will  not  mind  the 
rest  at  present.  "  I  have  no  writings  of  the  sort ;  I  cannot  pro- 
duce any  accounts."  What  then  is  to  be  done?  What  do  you 
think  that  these  judges  can  do?  Your  house  was  full  of  most 
beautiful  statues  already,  before  your  praetorship;  many  were 
placed  in  your  villas,  many  were  deposited  with  your  friends; 
many  were  given  and  presented  to  other  people;  yet  you  have 
no  accounts  speaking  of  any  single  one  having  been  bought. 
All  the  plate  in  Sicily  has  been  taken  away.  There  is  nothing 
left  to  anyone  that  can  be  called  his  own.  A  scandalous  de- 
fence is  invented,  that  the  praetor  bought  all  that  plate ;  and  yet 
that  cannot  be  proved  by  any  accounts.  If  you  do  produce  any 
accounts,  still  there  is  no  entry  in  them  how  you  have  acquired 
what  you  have  got.  But  of  these  years  during  which  you  say 
that  you  bought  the  greatest  number  of  things,  you  produce  no 
accounts  at  all.  Must  you  not  inevitably  be  condemned,  both 
by  the  accounts  which  you  do,  and  by  those  which  you  do  not 
produce? 

You  also  took  away  at  Lilybaeum  whatever  silver  vessels  you 
chose  from  Marcus  Cselius,  a  Roman  knight,  a  most  excellent 
young  man.  You  did  not  hesitate  to  take  away  the  whole  furni- 
ture of  Caius  Cacurius,  a  most  active  and  accomplished  man,  and 
of  the  greatest  influence  in  this  city.  You  took  away,  with  the 
knowledge  of  everybody,  a  very  large  and  very  beautiful  table  of 
citron-wood  from  Quintus  Lutatius  Diodorus,  who,  owing  to 
the  kind  exertion  of  his  interest  by  Quintus  Catulus,  was  made  a 
Roman  citizen  by  Lucius  Sylla.  I  do  not  object  to  you  that  you 
stripped  and  plundered  a  most  worthy  imitator  of  yours  in  his 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        441 

whole  character,  Apollonius,  the  son  of  Nico,  a  citizen  of  Drep- 
anum,  who  is  now  called  Aulus  Clodius,  of  all  his  exquisitely 
wrought  silver  plate;  I  say  nothing  of  that.  For  he  does  not 
think  that  any  injury  has  been  done  to  him,  because  you  came 
to  his  assistance  when  he  was  a  ruined  man,  with  the  rope  round 
his  neck,  and  shared  with  him  the  property  belonging  to  their 
father,  of  which  he  had  plundered  his  wards  at  Drepanum.  I 
am  even  very  glad  if  you  took  anything  from  him,  and  I  say  that 
nothing  was  ever  better  done  by  you.  But  it  certainly  was  not 
right  that  the  statue  of  Apollo  should  have  been  taken  away  from 
Lyso  of  Lilybaeum,  a  most  eminent  man,  with  whom  you  have 
been  staying  as  a  guest.  But  you  will  say  that  you  bought  it — 
I  know  that — for  six  hundred  sesterces.  So  I  suppose:  I  know 
it,  I  say;  I  will  produce  the  accounts;  and  yet  that  ought  not  to 
have  been  done.  Will  you  say  that  the  drinking-vessels  with 
emblems  of  Lilybaeum  on  them  were  bought  from  Heius,  the 
minor  to  whom  Marcellus  is  guardian,  whom  you  had  plundered 
of  a  large  sum  of  money,  or  will  you  confess  that  they  were  taken 
by  force? 

But  why  do  I  enumerate  all  his  ordinary  iniquities  in  affairs 
of  this  sort,  which  appear  to  consist  only  in  robberies  committed 
by  him,  and  in  losses  borne  by  those  whom  he  plundered? 
Listen,  if  you  please,  O  judges,  to  an  action  of  such  a  sort  as  will 
prove  to  you  clearly  his  extraordinary  madness  and  frenzy, 
rather  than  any  ordinary  covetousness. 

There  is  a  man  of  Melita,  called  Diodorus,  who  has  already 
given  evidence  before  you.  He  has  been  now  living  at  Lily- 
baeum many  years ;  a  man  of  great  nobility  at  home,  and  of  great 
credit  and  popularity  with  the  people  among  whom  he  has  set- 
tled, on  account  of  his  virtue.  It  is  reported  to  Verres  of  this 
man  that  he  has  some  exceedingly  fine  specimens  of  chased 
work;  and  among  them  two  goblets  called  Thericlean,8  made 
by  the  hand  of  Mentor  with  the  most  exquisite  skill.  And  when 
Verres  heard  of  this,  he  was  inflamed  with  such  a  desire,  not 
only  of  beholding,  but  also  of  appropriating  them,  that  he  sum- 
moned Diodorus,  and  demanded  them.  He  replied,  as  was 
natural  for  a  man  who  took  great  pride  in  them,  that  he  had  not 

*  "  Thcricles  was  a  potter  in  the  time  in   imitation   of  his,    whether   of   wood, 

of    Aristophanes,    who    made    earthen-  silver,  or  glass,  were  called  Thericlean." 

ware   vessels   of   a   peculiar   black   clay.  — Gravius. 
In  subsequent  time,  any  goblets  made 


442  CICERO 

got  them  at  Lilybaeum;  that  he  had  left  them  at  Melita,  in  the 
house  of  a  relation  of  his.  On  this  he  immediately  sends  men 
on  whom  he  can  rely  to  Melita;  he  writes  to  certain  inhabitants 
of  Melita  to  search  out  those  vessels  for  him;  he  desires  Diodorus 
to  give  them  letters  to  that  relation  of  his — the  time  appeared  to 
him  endless  till  he  could  see  those  pieces  of  plate.  Diodorus,  a 
prudent  and  careful  man,  who  wished  to  keep  his  own  property, 
writes  to  his  relation  to  make  answer  to  those  men  who  came 
from  Verres,  that  he  had  sent  the  cups  to  Lilybseum  a  few  days 
before.  In  the  mean  time  he  himself  leaves  the  place.  He  pre- 
ferred leaving  his  home,  to  staying  in  it  and  losing  that  ex- 
quisitely wrought  silverwork.  But  when  Verres  heard  of  this, 
he  was  so  agitated  that  he  seemed  to  everyone  to  be  raving,  and 
to  be  beyond  all  question  mad.  Because  he  could  not  steal  the 
plate  himself,  he  said  that  he  had  been  robbed  by  Diodorus  of 
some  exquisitely  wrought  vessels;  he  poured  out  threats  against 
the  absent  Diodorus;  he  used  to  roar  out  before  people;  some- 
times he  could  not  restrain  his  tears.  We  have  heard  in  the 
mythology  of  Eriphyla  being  so  covetous  that  when  she  had 
seen  a  necklace,  made,  I  suppose,  of  gold  and  jewels,  she  was  so 
excited  by  its  beauty,  that  she  betrayed  her  husband  for  the  sake 
of  it.  His  covetousness  was  similar;  but  in  one  respect  more 
violent  and  more  senseless,  because  she  was  desiring  a  thing 
which  she  had  seen,  while  his  wishes  were  excited  not  only  by 
his  eyes,  but  even  by  his  ears. 

He  orders  Diodorus  to  be  sought  for  over  the  whole  province. 
He  had  by  this  time  struck  his  camp,  packed  up  his  baggage, 
and  left  Sicily.  Verres,  in  order  by  some  means  or  other  to 
bring  the  man  back  to  the  province,  devises  this  plan,  if  it  is  to 
be  called  a  plan,  and  not  rather  a  piece  of  madness.  He  sets  up 
one  of  the  men  he  calls  his  hounds,  to  say  that  he  wishes  to  in- 
stitute a  prosecution  against  Diodorus  of  Melita  for  a  capital 
offence.  At  first  all  men  wondered  at  such  a  thing  being  im- 
puted to  Diodorus,  a  most  quiet  man,  and  as  far  removed  as  any 
man  from  all  suspicion,  not  only  of  crime,  but  of  even  the  slight- 
est irregularity.  But  it  soon  became  evident,  that  all  this  was 
done  for  the  sake  of  his  silver.  Verres  does  not  hesitate  to  order 
the  prosecution  to  be  instituted;  and  that,  I  imagine,  was  the 
first  instance  of  his  allowing  an  accusation  to  be  made  against 
an  absent  man.  The  matter  was  notorious  over  all  Sicily,  that 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF   VERRES 


443 


men  were  prosecuted  for  capital  offences  because  the  praetor 
coveted  their  chased  silver  plate;  and  that  prosecutions  were  in- 
stituted against  them  not  only  when  they  were  present,  but  even 
in  their  absence.  Diodorus  goes  to  Rome,  and  putting  on 
mourning,  calls  on  all  his  patrons  and  friends;  relates  the  affair 
to  everyone.  Earnest  letters  are  written  to  Verres  by  his  father, 
and  by  his  friends,  warning  him  to  take  care  what  he  did,  and 
what  steps  he  took  respecting  Diodorus;  that  the  matter  was 
notorious  and  very  unpopular;  that  he  must  be  out  of  his  senses ; 
that  this  one  charge  would  ruin  him  if  he  did  not  take  care.  At 
that  time  he  considered  his  father,  if  not  in  the  light  of  a  parent, 
at  least  in  that  of  a  man.  He  had  not  yet  sufficiently  prepared 
himself  for  a  trial;  it  was  his  first  year  in  the  province;  he  was 
not,  as  he  was  by  the  time  of  the  affair  of  Sthenius,  loaded  with 
money.  And  so  his  frenzy  was  checked  a  little,  not  by  shame, 
but  by  fear  and  alarm.  He  does  not  dare  to  condemn  Diodorus ; 
he  takes  his  name  out  of  the  list  of  defendants  while  he  is  absent. 
In  the  meantime  Diodorus,  for  nearly  three  years,  as  long  as 
that  man  was  praetor,  was  banished  from  the  province  and  from 
his  home.  Every  one  else,  not  only  Sicilians,  but  Roman  citi- 
zens too,  settled  this  in  their  minds,  that,  since  he  had  carried 
his  covetousness  to  such  an  extent,  there  was  nothing  which 
anyone  could  expect  to  preserve  or  retain  in  his  own  possession 
if  it  was  admired  ever  so  little  by  Verres. 

But  after  they  understood  that  that  brave  man,  Quintus  Ar- 
rius,  whom  the  province  was  eagerly  looking  for,  was  not  his 
successor,  they  then  settled  that  they  could  keep  nothing  so 
carefully  shut  up  or  hidden  away,  as  not  to  be  most  open  and 
visible  to  his  covetousness.  After  that,  he  took  away  from  an 
honorable  and  highly  esteemed  Roman  knight,  named  Cnaeus 
Calidius,  whose  son  he  knew  to  be  a  senator  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple and  a  judge,  some  beautiful  silver  horses  which  had  belonged 
to  Quintus  Maximus.  I  did  not  mean  to  say  this,  O  judges,  for 
he  bought  those,  he  did  not  steal  them ;  I  wish  I  had  not  men- 
tioned them.  Now  he  will  boast,  and  have  a  fine  ride  on  these 
horses.  "  I  bought  them,  I  have  paid  the  money  for  them."  I 
have  no  doubt  account-books  also  will  be  produced.  It  is  well 
worth  while.  Give  me  then  the  account-books.  You  are  at 
liberty  to  get  rid  of  this  charge  respecting  Calidius,  as  long  as 
I  can  get  a  sight  of  these  accounts;  still,  if  you  had  bought  them, 


444 


CICERO 


what  ground  had  Calidius  for  complaining  at  Rome,  that, 
though  he  had  been  living  so  many  years  in  Sicily  as  a  trader, 
you  were  the  only  person  who  had  so  despised  and  so  insulted 
him,  as  to  plunder  him  in  common  with  all  the  rest  of  the  Sicil- 
ians? what  ground  had  he  for  declaring  that  he  would  demand 
his  plate  back  again  from  you,  if  he  had  sold  it  to  you  of  his  own 
free  will?  Moreover,  how  could  you  avoid  restoring  it  to 
Cnaeus  Calidius;  especially  when  he  was  such  an  intimate  friend 
of  Lucius  Sisenna,  your  defender,  and  as  you  had  restored  their 
property  to  the  other  friends  of  Sisenna?  Lastly,  I  do  not  sup- 
pose you  will  deny  that  by  the  intervention  of  Potarho,  a  friend 
of  yours,  you  restored  his  plate  to  Lucius  Cordius,  an  honorable 
man,  but  not  more  highly  esteemed  than  Cnaeus  Calidius;  and  it 
was  he  who  made  the  cause  of  the  rest  more  difficult  to  plead 
before  you ;  for  though  you  had  promised  many  men  to  restore 
them  their  property,  yet,  after  Cordius  had  stated  in  his  evidence 
that  you  had  restored  him  his,  you  desisted  from  making  any 
more  restorations,  because  you  saw  that  you  lost  your  plunder, 
and  yet  could  not  escape  the  evidence  against  you.  Under  all 
other  praetors  Cnaeus  Calidius,  a  Roman  knight,  was  allowed  to 
have  plate  finely  wrought;  he  was  permitted  to  be  able  from  his 
own  stores  to  adorn  and  furnish  a  banquet  handsomely,  when  he 
had  invited  a  magistrate  or  any  superior  officer.  Many  men  in 
power  and  authority  have  been  with  Cnaeus  Calidius  at  his 
house ;  no  one  was  ever  found  so  mad  as  to  take  from  him  that 
admirable  and  splendid  plate;  no  one  was  found  bold  enough  to 
ask  for  it;  no  one  impudent  enough  to  beg  him  to  sell  it.  For  it 
is  an  arrogant  thing,  an  intolerable  thing,  O  judges,  for  a  praetor 
to  say  to  an  honorable,  and  rich,  and  well-appointed  man  in  his 
province,  "  Sell  me  those  chased  goblets."  For  it  is  saying, 
"  You  do  not  deserve  to  have  things  which  are  so  beautifully 
made;  they  are  better  suited  to  a  man  of  my  stamp."  Are  you, 
O  Verres,  more  worthy  than  Calidius?  whom  (not  to  compare 
your  way  of  life  with  his,  for  they  are  not  to  be  compared,  but)  I 
will  compare  you  with  in  respect  of  this  very  dignity  owing  to 
which  you  make  yourself  out  his  superior.  You  gave  eighty 
thousand  sesterces  to  canvassing  agents  to  procure  your  election 
as  praetor;  you  gave  three  hundred  thousand  to  an  accuser  not 
to  press  hardly  upon  you :  do  you,  on  that  account,  look  down 
upon  and  despise  the  equestrian  order?  Is  it  on  that  account 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        445 

that  it  seemed  to  you  a  scandalous  thing  that  Calidius  should 
have  anything  that  you  admired  rather  than  that  you  should? 

He  has  been  long  boasting  of  this  transaction  with  Calidius, 
and  telling  everyone  that  he  bought  the  things.  Did  you  also 
buy  that  censer  of  Lucius  Papirius,  a  man  of  the  highest  reputa- 
tion, wealth,  and  honor,  and  a  Roman  knight?  who  stated  in  his 
evidence  that,  when  you  had  begged  for  it  to  look  at,  you  re- 
turned it  with  the  emblems  torn  off;  so  that  you  may  understand 
that  it  is  all  taste  in  that  man,  not  avarice  ;  that  it  is  the  fine  work 
that  he  covets,  not  the  silver.  Nor  was  his  abstinence  exercised 
only  in  the  case  of  Papirius;  he  practised  exactly  the  same  con-  > 
duct  with  respect  to  every  censer  in  Sicily;  and  it  is  quite  incred- 
ible how  many  beautifully  wrought  censers  there  were.  I 
imagine  that,  when  Sicily  was  at  the  height  of  its  power  and 
opulence,  there  were  extensive  work-shops  in  that  island;  for 
before  that  man  went  thither  as  praetor  there  was  no  house  toler- 
ably rich,  in  which  there  were  not  these  things,  even  if  there  was 
no  other  silver  plate  besides;  namely,  a  large  dish  with  figures 
and  images  of  the  gods  embossed  on  it,  a"  goblet  which  the 
women  used  for  sacred  purposes,  and  a  censer.  And  all  these 
were  antique,  and  executed  with  the  most  admirable  skill,  so  that 
one  may  suspect  everything  else  in  Sicily  was  on  a  similar  scale 
of  magnificence ;  but  that  though  fortune  had  deprived  them  of 
much,  those  things  were  still  preserved  among  them  which  were 
retained  for  purposes  of  religion.  I  said  just  now,  O  judges, 
that  there  were  many  censers,  in  almost  every  house  in  fact;  I 
assert  also,  that  now  there  is  not  even  one  left.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this?  what  monster,  what  prodigy  did  we  send  into 
the  province?  Does  it  not  appear  to  you  that  he  desired,  when 
he  returned  to  Rome,  to  satisfy  not  the  covetousness  of  one  man, 
not  his  own  eyes  only,  but  the  insane  passion  of  every  covetous 
man;  for  as  soon  as  he  ever  came  into  any  city,  immediately 
those  Cibyratic  hounds  of  his  were  slipped,  to  search  and  find 
out  everything.  If  they  found  any  large  vessel,  any  consider- 
able work,  they  brought  it  to  him  with  joy;  if  they  could  hunt 
out  any  smaller  vessel  of  the  same  sort,  they  looked  on  those  as  a 
sort  of  lesser  game,  whether  they  were  dishes,  cups,  censers,  or 
anything  else.  What  weepings  of  women,  what  lamentations  do 
you  suppose  took  place  over  these  things?  things  which  may 
perhaps  seem  insignificant  to  you,  but  which  excite  great  and 


446  CICERO 

bitter  indignation,  especially  among  women,  who  grieve  when 
those  things  are  torn  from  their  hands  which  they  have  been  ac- 
customed to  use  in  religious  ceremonies,  which  they  have  re- 
ceived from  their  ancestors,  and  which  have  always  been  in  their 
family. 

Do  not  now  wait  while  I  follow  up  this  charge  from  door  to 
door,  and  show  you  that  he  stole  a  goblet  from  ^schylus  the 
Tyndaritan;  a  dish  from  another  citizen  of  Tyndaris  named 
Thraso;  a  censer  from  Nymphodorus  of  Agrigentum.  When 
I  produce  my  witnesses  from  Sicily  he  may  select  whom  he 
pleases  for  me  to  examine  about  dishes,  goblets,  and  censers. 
Not  only  no  town,  no  single  house  that  is  tolerably  well  off  will 
be  found  to  have  been  free  from  the  injurious  treatment  of  this 
man;  who,  even  if  he  had  come  to  a  banquet,  if  he  saw  any  finely 
wrought  plate,  could  not,  O  judges,  keep  his  hands  from  it. 
There  is  a  man  named  Cnaeus  Pompeius  Philo,  who  was  a  native 
of  Tyndaris;  he  gave  Verres  a  supper  at  his  villa  in  the  country 
near  Tyndaris;  he  did  what  Sicilians  did  not  dare  to  do,  but 
what,  because  he  was  a  citizen  of  Rome,  he  thought  he  could  do 
with  impunity,  he  put  before  him  a  dish  on  which  were  some  ex- 
ceedingly beautiful  figures.  Verres,  the  moment  he  saw  it,  de- 
termined to  rob  his  host's  table  of  that  memorial  of  the  Penates 
and  of  the  gods  of  hospitality.  But  yet,  in  accordance  with  what 
I  have  said  before  of  his  great  moderation,  he  restored  the  rest 
of  the  silver  after  he  had  torn  off  the  figures;  so  free  was  he  from 
all  avarice!  What  want  you  more?  Did  he  not  do  the  same 
thing  to  Eupolemus  of  Calacta,  a  noble  man,  connected  with, 
and  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Luculli ;  a  man  who  is  now  serving 
in  the  army  under  Lucius  Lucullus?  He  was  supping  with 
him ;  the  rest  of  the  silver  which  he  had  set  before  him  had  no 
ornament  on  it,  lest  he  himself  should  also  be  left  without  any 
ornament ;  but  there  were  also  two  gold  goblets,  of  no  large  size, 
but  with  figures  on  them.  He,  as  if  he  had  been  a  professional 
diner-out,  who  was  not  to  go  away  without  a  present,  on  the 
spot,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  other  guests,  tore  off  the  figures.  I 
do  not  attempt  to  enumerate  all  his  exploits  of  this  sort;  it  is 
neither  necessary  nor  possible.  I  only  produce  to  you  tokens 
and  samples  of  each  description  of  his  varied  and  universal  ras- 
cality. Nor  did  he  behave  in  these  affairs  as  if  he  would  some 
day  or  other  be  called  to  account  for  them,  but  altogether  as  if 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES 


447 


he  was  either  never  likely  to  be  prosecuted,  or  else  as  if  the  more 
he  stole,  the  less  would  be  his  danger  when  he  was  brought  be- 
fore the  court;  inasmuch  as  he  did  these  things  which  I  am 
speaking  of  not  secretly,  not  by  the  instrumentality  of  friends  or 
agents,  but  openly,  from  his  high  position,  by  his  own  power  and 
authority. 

When  he  had  come  to  Catina,  a  wealthy,  honorable,  influen- 
tial city,  he  ordered  Dionysiarchus  the  proagorus,  that  is  to  say, 
the  chief  magistrate,  to  be  summoned  before  him ;  he  openly 
orders  him  to  take  care  that  all  the  silver  plate  which  was  in 
anybody's  house  at  Catina,  was  collected  together  and  brought 
to  him.  Did  you  not  hear  Philarchus  of  Centuripa,  a  man  of 
the  highest  position  as  to  noble  birth,  and  virtue,  and  riches, 
say  the  same  thing  on  his  oath ;  namely,  that  Verres  had  charged 
and  commanded  him  to  collect  together,  and  ordered  to  be  con- 
veyed to  him,  all  the  silver  plate  at  Centuripa,  by  far  the  largest 
and  wealthiest  city  in  all  Sicily?  In  the  same  manner  at  Agy- 
rium,  all  the  Corinthian  vessels  there  were  there,  in  accordance 
with  his  command,  were  transported  to  Syracuse  by  the  agency 
of  Apollodorus,  whom  you  have  heard  as  a  witness.  But  the 
most  extraordinary  conduct  of  all  was  this ;  when  that  painstak- 
ing and  industrious  prsetor  had  arrived  at  Haluntium,  he  would 
not  himself  go  up  into  the  town,  because  the  ascent  was  steep 
and  difficult;  but  he  ordered  Archagathus  of  Haluntium,  one 
of  the  noblest  men,  not  merely  in  his  own  city,  but  in  all  Sicily, 
to  be  summoned  before  him,  and  gave  him  a  charge  to  take 
care  that  all  the  chased  silver  that  there  was  at  Haluntium,  and 
every  specimen  of  Corinthian  work  too,  should  be  at  once  taken 
down  from  the  town  to  the  sea-side.  Archagathus  went  up  into 
the  town.  That  noble  man,  as  one  who  wished  to  be  loved  and 
esteemed  by  his  fellow-citizens,  was  very  indignant  at  having 
such  an  office  imposed  upon  him,  and  did  not  know  what  to  do. 
He  announces  the  commands  he  has  received.  He  orders  them 
to  produce  what  they  had.  There  was  great  consternation, 
for  the  tyrant  himself  had  not  gone  away  to  any  distance ;  lying 
on  a  litter  by  the  sea-side  below  the  town,  he  was  waiting  for 
Archagathus  and  the  silver  plate.  What  a  gathering  of  people 
do  you  suppose  took  place  in  the  town  ?  what  an  uproar  ?  what 
weeping  of  women  ?  they  who  saw  it  would  have  said  that  the 
Trojan  horse  had  been  introduced,  and  that  the  city  was  taken. 


448  CICERO 

Vessels  were  brought  out  without  their  cases ;  others  were 
wrenched  out  of  the  hands  of  women ;  many  people's  doors  were 
broken  open,  and  their  locks  forced.  For  what  else  can  you 
suppose  ?  Even  if  ever,  at  a  time  of  war  and  tumult,  arms  are 
demanded  of  private  citizens,  still  men  give  them  unwillingly, 
though  they  know  that  they  are  giving  them  for  the  common 
safety.  Do  not  suppose,  then,  that  anyone  produced  his  carved 
plate  out  of  his  house  for  another  man  to  steal,  without  the 
greatest  distress.  Everything  is  brought  down  to  the  shore. 
The  Cibyratic  brothers  are  summoned ;  they  condemn  some 
articles ;  whatever  they  approve  of  has  its  figures  in  relief  or  its 
embossed  emblems  torn  off.  And  so  the  Haluntines,  having 
had  all  their  ornaments  wrenched  off,  returned  home  with  the 
plain  silver. 

Was  there  ever,  O  judges,  a  drag-net  of  such  a  sort  as  this  in 
that  province?  People  have  sometimes  during  their  year  of 
office  diverted  some  part  of  the  public  property  to  their  own  use, 
in  the  most  secret  manner ;  sometimes  they  even  secretly  plun- 
dered some  private  citizen  of  something;  and  still  they  were 
condemned.  And  if  you  ask  me,  though  I  am  detracting  some- 
what from  my  own  credit  by  saying  so,  I  think  those  were  the 
real  accusers,  who  traced  the  robberies  of  such  men  as  this  by 
scent,  or  by  some  lightly  imprinted  footsteps;  for  what  is  it 
that  we  are  doing  in  respect  of  Verres,  who  has  wallowed  in  the 
mud  till  we  can  find  him  out  by  the  traces  of  his  whole  body  ? 
Is  it  a  great  undertaking  to  say  anything  against  a  man,  who 
while  he  was  passing  by  a  place,  having  his  litter  put  down  to 
rest  for  a  little  time,  plundered  a  whole  city,  house  by  house, 
without  condescending  to  any  pretences,  openly,  by  his  own 
authority,  and  by  an  absolute  command?  But  still,  that  he 
might  be  able  to  say  that  he  had  bought  them,  he  orders  Ar- 
chagathus  to  give  those  men,  to  whom  the  plate  had  belonged, 
some  little  money,  just  for  form's  sake.  Archagathus  found 
a  few  who  would  accept  the  money,  and  those  he  paid.  And 
still  Verres  never  paid  Archagathus  that  money.  Archaga- 
thus intended  to  claim  it  at  Rome ;  but  Cnaeus  Lentulus  Mar- 
cellinus  dissuaded  him,  as  you  heard  him  state  himself.  Read 
the  evidence  of  Archagathus,  and  of  Lentulus,  and  that  you 
may  not  imagine  that  the  man  wished  to  heap  up  such  a  mass  of 
figures  without  any  reason,  just  see  at  what  rate  he  valued  you, 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  449 

and  in  the  opinion  of  the  Roman  people,  and  the  laws,  and  the 
courts  of  justice,  and  the  Sicilian  witnesses  and  traders.  After 
he  had  collected  such  a  vast  number  of  figures  that  he  had  not 
left  one  single  figure  to  anybody,  he  established  an  immense 
shop  in  the  palace  at  Syracuse ;  he  openly  orders  all  the  manu- 
facturers, and  carvers,  and  goldsmiths  to  be  summoned — and 
he  himself  had  many  in  his  own  employ ;  he  collects  a  great  mul- 
titude of  men ;  he  kept  them  employed  uninterruptedly  for  eight 
months,  though  all  that  time  no  vessels  were  made  of  anything 
but  gold..  In  that  time  he  had  so  skilfully  wrought  the  figures 
which  he  had  torn  off  the  goblets  and  censers,  into  golden  gob- 
lets, or  had  so  ingeniously  joined  them  into  golden  cups,  that 
you  would  say  that  they  had  been  made  for  that  very  purpose ; 
and  he,  the  praetor,  who  says  that  it  was  owing  to  his  vigilance 
that  peace  was  maintained  in  Sicily,  was  accustomed  to  sit  in  his 
tunic  and  dark  cloak  the  greater  part  of  the  day  in  this  work- 
shop. 

I  would  not  venture,  O  judges,  to  mention  these  things,  if 
I  were  not  afraid  that  you  might  perhaps  say  that  you  had  heard 
more  about  that  man  from  others  in  common  conversation, 
than  you  had  heard  from  me  in  this  trial ;  for  who  is  there  who 
has  not  heard  of  this  work-shop,  of  the  golden  vessels,  of 
Verres's  tunic  and  dark  cloak?  Name  any  respectable  man 
you  please  out  of  the  whole  body  of  settlers  at  Syracuse,  I  will 
produce  him;  there  will  not  be  one  person  who  will  not  say 
that  he  has  either  seen  this  or  heard  of  it.  Alas  for  the  age ! 
alas  for  the  degeneracy  of  our  manners !  I  will  not  mention 
anything  of  any  great  antiquity;  there  are  many  of  you,  O 
judges,  who  knew  Lucius  Piso,  the  father  of  this  Lucius  Piso, 
who  was  praetor.  When  he  was  praetor  in  Spain,  in  which 
province  he  was  slain,  somehow  or  other,  while  he  was  practis- 
ing his  exercises  in  arms,  the  golden  ring  which  he  had  was 
broken  and  crushed.  As  he  wanted  to  get  himself  another 
ring,  he  ordered  a  goldsmith  to  be  summoned  into  the  forum 
before  his  throne  of  office,  at  Corduba,  and  openly  weighed  him 
out  the  gold.  He  ordered  the  man  to  set  up  his  bench  in  the 
forum,  and  to  make  him  a  ring  in  the  presence  of  everyone. 
Perhaps  in  truth  some  may  say  that  he  was  too  exact,  and  to 
this  extent  anyone  who  chooses  may  blame  him,  but  no  fur- 
ther. Still  such  conduct  was  allowable  for  him,  for  he  was  the 

2Q 


450  CICERO 

son  of  Lucius  Piso,  of  that  man  who  first  made  the  law  about 
extortion  and  embezzlement.  It  is  quite  ridiculous  for  me  to 
speak  of  Verres  now,  when  I  have  just  been  speaking  of  Piso 
the  Thrifty;  still,  see  what  a  difference  there  is  between  the 
men ;  that  man,  while  he  was  making  some  side-boards  full  of 
golden  vessels,  did  not  care  what  his  reputation  was,  not  only  in 
Sicily,  but  also  at  Rome  in  the  court  of  justice ;  the  other  wished 
all  Spain  to  know  to  half  an  ounce  how  much  gold  it  took  to 
make  a  praetor's  ring.  Forsooth,  as  the  one  proved  his  right 
to  his  name,  so  did  the  other  to  his  surname. 

It  is  utterly  impossible  for  me  either  to  retain  in  my  memory, 
or  to  embrace  in  my  speech,  all  his  exploits.  I  wish  just  to 
touch  briefly  on  the  different  kinds  of  deeds  done  by  him,  just  as 
here  the  ring  of  Piso  reminded  me  of  what  had  otherwise  en- 
tirely escaped  my  recollection.  From  how  many  honorable 
men  do  you  imagine  that  that  man  tore  the  golden  rings  from 
off  their  fingers  ?  He  never  hesitated  to  do  so  whenever  he  was 
pleased  with  either  the  jewels  or  the  fashion  of  the  ring  belong- 
ing to  anyone.  I  am  going  to  mention  an  incredible  fact,  but 
still  one  so  notorious  that  I  do  not  think  that  he  himself  will 
deny  it.  When  a  letter  had  been  brought  to  Valentius  his  in- 
terpreter from  Agrigentum,  by  chance  Verres  himself  noticed 
the  impression  on  the  seal;  he  was  pleased  with  it,  he  asked 
where  the  letter  came  from ;  he  was  told,  from  Agrigentum. 
He  sent  letters  to  the  men  with  whom  he  was  accustomed  to 
communicate,  ordering  that  ring  to  be  brought  to  him  as  soon 
as  possible.  And  accordingly,  in  compliance  with  his  letter, 
it  was  torn  off  the  finger  of  a  master  of  a  family,  a  certain  Lucius 
Titius,  a  Roman  citizen.  But  that  covetousness  of  his  is  quite 
beyond  belief.  For  as  he  wished  to  provide  three  hundred 
couches  beautifully  covered,  with  all  other  decorations  for  a 
banquet,  for  the  different  rooms  which  he  has,  not  only  at  Rome, 
but  in  his  different  villas,  he  collected  such  a  number,  that  there 
was  no  wealthy  house  in  all  Sicily  where  he  did  not  set  up  an 
embroiderer's  shop. 

There  is  a  woman,  a  citizen  of  Segasta,  very  rich,  and  nobly 
born,  by  name  Lamia.  She,  having  her  house  full  of  spinning 
jennies,  for  three  years  was  making  him  robes  and  coverlets,  all 
dyed  with  purple ;  Attalus,  a  rich  man  at  Netum ;  Lyso  at  Lily- 
bseum;  Critolaus  at  Enna;  at  Syracuse  JEschrio,  Cleomenes, 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF   VERRES 


451 


and  Theomnastus ;  at  Elorum  Archonides  and  Megistus.  My 
voice  will  fail  me  before  the  names  of  the  men  whom  he  em- 
ployed in  this  way  will;  he  himself  supplied  the  purple — his 
friends  supplied  only  the  work,  I  dare  say ;  for  I  have  no  wish 
to  accuse  him  in  every  particular,  as  if  it  were  not  enough  for 
me,  with  a  view  to  accuse  him,  that  he  should  have  had  so  much 
to  give,  that  he  should  have  wished  to  carry  away  so  many 
things  ;  and,  besides  all  that,  this  thing  which  he  admits,  namely, 
that  he  should  have  employed  the  work  of  his  friends  in  affairs 
of  this  sort.  But  now  do  you  suppose  that  brazen  couches  and 
brazen  candelabra  were  made  at  Syracuse  for  anyone  but  for 
him  the  whole  of  that  three  years?  He  bought  them,  I  sup- 
pose ;  but  I  am  informing  you  so  fully,  O  judges,  of  what  that 
man  did  in  his  province  as  praetor,  that  he  may  not  by  chance 
appear  to  anyone  to  have  been  careless,  and  not  to  have  provid- 
ed and  adorned  himself  sufficiently  when  he  had  absolute 
power. 

I  come  now,  not  to  a  theft,  not  to  avarice,  not  to  covetous- 
ness,  but  to  an  action  of  that  sort  that  every  kind  of  wickedness 
seems  to  be  contained  in  it,  and  to  be  in  it ;  by  which  the  immor- 
tal gods  were  insulted,  the  reputation  and  authority  of  the  name 
of  the  Roman  people  was  impaired,  hospitality  was  betrayed 
and  plundered,  all  the  kings  who  were  most  friendly  to  us,  and 
the  nations  which  are  under  their  rule  and  dominion,  were 
alienated  from  us  by  his  wickedness.  For  you  know  that  the 
kings  of  Syria,  the  boyish  sons  of  King  Antiochus,  have  lately 
been  at  Rome.  And  they  came  not  on  account  of  the  kingdom 
of  Syria ;  for  that  they  had  obtained  possession  of  without  dis- 
pute, as  they  had  received  it  from  their  father  and  their  ances- 
tors ;  but  they  thought  that  the  kingdom  of  Egypt  belonged  to 
them  and  to  Selene  their  mother.  When  they,  being  hindered 
by  the  critical  state  of  the  republic  at  that  time,  were  not  able 
to  obtain  the  discussion  of  the  subject  as  they  wished  before 
the  Senate,  they  departed  for  Syria,  their  paternal  kingdom. 
One  of  them — the  one  whose  name  is  Antiochus — wished  to 
make  his  journey  through  Sicily.  And  so,  while  Verres  was 
praetor,  he  came  to  Syracuse.  On  this  Verres  thought  that  an 
inheritance  had  come  to  him,  because  a  man  whom  he  had 
heard,  and  on  other  accounts  suspected  had  many  splendid 
things  with  him,  had  come  into  the  kingdom  and  into  his  power. 


452 


CICERO 


He  sends  him  presents — liberal  enough — for  all  domestic  uses  ; 
as  much  wine  and  oil  as  he  thought  fit ;  and  as  much  wheat  as 
he  could  want,  out  of  his  tenths.  After  that  he  invites  the  king 
himself  to  supper.  He  decorates  a  couch  abundantly  and  mag- 
nificently. He  sets  out  the  numerous  and  beautiful  silver  ves- 
sels, in  which  he  was  so  rich ;  for  he  had  not  yet  made  all  those 
golden  ones.  He  takes  care  that  the  banquet  shall  be  splen- 
didly appointed  and  provided  in  every  particular.  Why  need 
I  make  a  long  story  of  it  ?  The  king  departed,  thinking  that 
Verres  was  superbly  provided  with  everything,  and  that  he  him- 
self had  been  magnificently  treated.  After  that,  he  himself 
invites  the  praetor  to  supper.  He  displays  all  his  treasures ; 
much  silver,  also  not  a  few  goblets  of  gold,  which,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom of  kings,  and  especially  in  Syria,  were  studded  all  over 
with  most  splendid  jewels.  There  was  also  a  vessel  for  wine, 
a  ladle  hollowed  out  of  one  single  large  precious  stone,  with  a 
golden  handle,  concerning  which,  I  think,  you  heard  Quintus 
Minutius  speak,  a  sufficiently  capable  judge,  and  sufficiently 
credible  witness.  Verres  took  each  separate  piece  of  plate  into 
his  hand,  praised  it — admired  it.  The  king  was  delighted  that 
that  banquet  was  tolerably  pleasant  and  agreeable  to  a  praetor 
of  the  Roman  people.  After  the  banquet  was  over,  Verres 
thought  of  nothing  else,  as  the  facts  themselves  showed,  than 
how  he  might  plunder  and  strip  the  king  of  everything  before 
he  departed  from  the  province.  He  sends  to  ask  for  the  most 
exquisite  of  the  vessels  which  he  had  seen  at  Antiochus's  lodg- 
ings. He  said  that  he  wished  to  show  them  to  his  engravers. 
The  king,  who  did  not  know  the  man,  most  willingly  sent  them, 
without  any  suspicion  of  his  intention.  He  sends  also  to  bor- 
row the  jewelled  ladle.  He  said  that  he  wished  to  examine  it 
more  attentively ;  that  also  is  sent  to  him. 

Now,  O  judges,  mark  what  followed ;  things  which  you  have 
already  heard,  and  which  the  Roman  people  will  not  hear  now 
for  the  first  time,  and  which  have  been  reported  abroad  among 
foreign  nations  to  the  farthest  corners  of  the  earth.  The  kings, 
whom  I  have  spoken  of,  had  brought  to  Rome  a  candelabrum 
of  the  finest  jewels,  made  with  most  extraordinary  skill,  in  order 
to  place  it  in  the  Capitol ;  but  as  they  found  that  temple  not  yet 
finished,  they  could  not  place  it  there.  Nor  were  they  willing 
to  display  it  and  produce  it  in  common,  in  order  that  it  might 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        453 

seem  more  splendid  when  it  was  placed  at  its  proper  time  in  the 
shrine  of  the  great  and  good  Jupiter,  and  brighter,  also,  as  its 
beauty  would  come  fresh  and  untarnished  before  the  eyes  of 
men.  They  determined,  therefore,  to  take  it  back  with  them 
into  Syria  with  the  intention,  when  they  should  hear  that  the 
image  of  the  great  and  good  Jupiter  was  dedicated,  of  sending 
ambassadors  who  should  bring  that  exquisite  and  most  beauti- 
ful present,  with  other  offerings,  to  the  Capitol.  The  matter, 
I  know  not  how,  got  to  his  ears.  For  the  king  had  wished  it 
kept  entirely  concealed;  not  because  he  feared  or  suspected 
anything,  but  because  he  did  not  wish  many  to  feast  their  eyes 
on  it  before  the  Roman  people.  He  begs  the  king,  and  entreats 
him  most  earnestly  to  send  it  to  him ;  he  says  that  he  longs  to 
look  at  it  himself,  and  that  he  will  not  allow  anyone  else  to  see 
it.  Antiochus,  being  both  of  a  childlike  and  royal  disposition, 
suspected  nothing  of  that  man's  dishonesty,  and  orders  his  ser- 
vants to  take  it  as  secretly  as  possible,  and  well  wrapped  up,  to 
the  praetor's  house.  And  when  they  brought  it  there,  and 
placed  it  on  a  table,  having  taken  off  the  coverings,  Verres  be- 
gan to  exclaim  that  it  was  a  thing  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of 
Syria,  worthy  of  being  a  royal  present,  worthy  of  the 'Capitol. 
In  truth,  it  was  of  such  splendor  as  a  thing  must  be  which  is 
made  of  the  most  brilliant  and  beautiful  jewels ;  of  such  variety 
of  pattern  that  the  skill  of  the  workmanship  seemed  to  vie  with 
the  richness  of  the  materials ;  and  of  such  a  size  that  it  might 
easily  be  seen  that  it  had  been  made  not  for  the  furniture  of  men, 
but  for  the  decoration  of  a  most  noble  temple.  And  when  he 
appeared  to  have  examined  it  sufficiently,  the  servants  begin 
to  take  it  up  to  carry  it  back  again.  He  says  that  he  wishes  to 
examine  it  over  and  over  again ;  that  he  is  not  half  satiated  with 
the  sight  of  it ;  he  orders  them  to  depart  and  to  leave  the  candel- 
abrum. So  they  then  return  to  Antiochus  empty-handed. 

The  king  at  first  feared  nothing,  suspected  nothing.  One 
day  passed — two  days — many  days.  It  was  not  brought  back. 
Then  the  king  sends  to  Verres  to  beg  him  to  return  it,  if  he  will 
be  so  good.  He  bids  the  slaves  come  again.  The  king  begins 
to  think  it  strange.  He  sends  a  second  time.  It  is  not  re- 
turned. He  himself  calls  on  the  man ;  he  begs  him  to  restore 
it  to  him.  Think  of  the  face  and  marvellous  impudence  of  the 
man.  That  thing  which  he  knew,  and  which  he  had  heard  from 


454 


CICERO 


the  king  himself  was  to  be  placed  in  the  Capitol,  which  he  knew 
was  being  kept  for  the  great  and  good  Jupiter,  and  for  the 
Roman  people,  that  he  began  to  ask  and  entreat  earnestly  to 
have  given  to  him.  When  the  king  said  that  he  was  prevented 
from  complying  by  the  reverence  due  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus, 
and  by  his  regard  for  the  opinion  of  men,  because  many  nations 
were  witnesses  to  the  fact  of  the  candelabrum  having  been  made 
for  a  present  to  the  god,  the  fellow  began  to  threaten  him  most 
violently.  When  he  sees  that  he  is  no  more  influenced  by 
threats  than  he  had  been  by  prayers,  on  a  sudden  he  orders  him 
to  leave  his  province  before  night.  He  says,  that  he  has  found 
out  that  pirates  from  his  kingdom  were  coming  against  Sicily. 
The  king,  in  the  most  frequented  place  in  Syracuse,  in  the  forum 
— in  the  forum  at  Syracuse,  I  say  (that  no  man  may  suppose  I 
am  bringing  forward  a  charge  about  which  there  is  any  ob- 
scurity, or  imagining  anything  which  rests  on  mere  suspicion), 
weeping,  and  calling  gods  and  men  to  witness,  began  to  cry  out 
that  Caius  Verres  had  taken  from  him  a  candelabrum  made  of 
jewels,  which  he  was  about  to  send  to  the  Capitol,  and  which  he 
wished  to  be  in  that  most  splendid  temple  as  a  memorial  to  the 
Roman  people  of  his  alliance  with  and  friendship  for  them.  He 
said  that  he  did  not  care  about  the  other  works  made  of  gold 
and  jewels  belonging  to  him  which  were  in  Verres's  hands,  but 
that  it  was  a  miserable  and  scandalous  thing  for  this  to  be  taken 
from  him.  And  that,  although  it  had  long  ago  been  conse- 
crated in  the  minds  and  intentions  of  himself  and  his  brother, 
still,  that  he  then,  before  that  assembled  body  of  Roman  citi- 
zens, offered,  and  gave,  and  dedicated,  and  consecrated  it  to  the 
great  and  good  Jupiter,  and  that  he  invoked  Jupiter  himself  as  a 
witness  of  his  intention  and  of  his  piety. 

What  voice,  what  lungs,  what  power  of  mine  can  adequately 
express  the  indignation  due  to  this  atrocity?  The  king  Antio- 
chus,  who  had  lived  for  two  years  at  Rome  in  the  sight  of  all  of 
us,  with  an  almost  royal  retinue  and  establishment — though  he 
had  been  the  friend  and  ally  of  the  Roman  people ;  though  his 
father,  and  his  grandfather,  and  his  ancestors,  most  ancient  and 
honorable  sovereigns,  had  been  our  firmest  friends ;  though  he 
himself  is  monarch  of  a  most  opulent  and  extensive  kingdom, 
is  turned  headlong  out  of  a  province  of  the  Roman  people. 
How  do  you  suppose  that  foreign  nations  will  take  this  ?  How 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  455 

do  you  suppose  the  news  of  this  exploit  of  yours  will  be  received 
in  the  dominions  of  other  kings,  and  in  the  most  distant  coun- 
tries of  the  world,  when  they  hear  that  a  king  has  been  insulted 
by  a  praetor  of  the  Roman  people  in  his  province  ?  that  a  guest  of 
the  Roman  people  has  been  plundered  ?  a  friend  and  ally  of  the 
Roman  people  insultingly  driven  out  ?  Know  that  your  name 
and  that  of  the  Roman  people  will  be  an  object  of  hatred  and  de- 
testation to  foreign  nations.  If  this  unheard-of  insolence  of 
Verres  is  to  pass  unpunished,  all  men  will  think,  especially  as  the 
reputation  of  our  men  for  avarice  and  covetousness  has  been 
very  extensively  spread,  that  this  is  not  his  crime  only,  but  that 
of  those  who  have  approved  of  it.  Many  kings,  many  free  cities 
many  opulent  and  powerful  private  men,  cherish  intentions  of 
ornamenting  the  Capitol  in  such  a  way  as  the  dignity  of  the  tem- 
ple and  the  reputation  of  our  empire  requires.  And  if  they 
understand  that  you  show  a  proper  indignation  at  this  kingly 
present  being  intercepted,  they  will  then  think  that  their  zeal  and 
their  presents  will  be  acceptable  to  you  and  to  the  Roman  people. 
But  if  they  hear  that  you  have  been  indifferent  to  the  complaint 
of  so  great  a  king,  in  so  remarkable  a  case,  in  one  of  such  bitter 
injustice,  they  will  not  be  so  crazy  as  to  spend  their  time,  and 
labor,  and  expense  on  things  which  they  do  not  think  will  be 
acceptable  to  you. 

And  in  this  place  I  appeal  to  you,  O  Quintus  Catulus ;  4  for  I 
am  speaking  of  your  most  honorable  and  most  splendid  mon- 
ument. You  ought  to  take  upon  yourself  not  only  the  severity 
of  a  judge  with  respect  to  this  crime,  but  something  like  the 
vehemence  of  an  enemy  and  an  accuser.  For,  through  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,  your  honor  is  connected 
with  that  temple.  Your  name  is  consecrated  at  the  same  time 
as  that  temple  in  the  everlasting  recollection  of  men.  It  is  by 
you  that  this  case  is  to  be  encountered ;  by  you,  that  this  labor 
is  to  be  undergone,  in  order  that  the  Capitol,  as  it  has  been  re- 
stored more  magnificently,  may  also  be  adorned  more  splen- 
didly than  it  was  originally ;  that  then  that  fire  may  seem  to  have 
been  sent  from  heaven  not  to  destroy  the  temple  of  the  great 
and  good  Jupiter,  but  to  demand  one  for  him  more  noble  and 
more  magnificent.  You  have  heard  Quintus  Minucius  Rufus 

«  The  Capitol  had  been  burned  in  the  superintendence  of  Ouintus  Cntulus,  to 
civil  war  between  Marius  and  Sylla;  whom  that  office  had  been  intrusted  by 
and  it  was  now  being  restored  under  the  the  Senate. 


456  CICERO 

say  that  King  Antiochus  stayed  at  his  house  while  at  Syracuse; 
that  he  knew  that  this  candelabrum  had  been  taken  to  Verres's 
house ;  that  he  knew  that  it  had  not  been  returned.  You  heard, 
and  you  shall  hear  from  the  whole  body  of  Roman  settlers  at 
Syracuse,  that  they  will  state  to  you  that  in  their  hearing  it  was 
dedicated  and  consecrated  to  the  good  and  great  Jupiter  by 
King  Aniochus.  If  you  were  not  a  judge,  and  this  affair  were 
reported  to  you,  it  would  be  your  especial  duty  to  follow  it  up ; 
to  reclaim  the  candelabrum,  and  to  prosecute  this  cause.  So 
that  I  do  not  doubt  what  ought  to  be  your  feelings  as  judge  in 
this  prosecution,  when  before  anyone  else  as  judge  you  ought 
to  be  a  much  more  vehement  advocate  and  accuser  than  I  am. 

And  to  you,  O  judges,  what  can  appear  more  scandalous  or 
more  intolerable  than  this  ?  Shall  Verres  have  at  his  own  house 
a  candelabrum,  made  of  jewels  and  gold,  belonging  to  the  great 
and  good  Jupiter?  Shall  that  ornament  be  set  out  in  his  house 
at  banquets  which  will  be  one  scene  of  adultery  and  debauchery, 
with  the  brilliancy  of  which  the  temple  of  the  great  and  good 
Jupiter  ought  to  glow  and  to  be  lighted  up  ?  Shall  the  decora- 
tions of  the  Capitol  be  placed  in  the  house  of  that  most  infamous 
debauchee  with  the  other  ornaments  which  he  has  inherited 
from  Chelidon  ?  What  do  you  suppose  will  ever  be  considered 
sacred  or  holy  by  him,  when  he  does  not  now  think  himself  lia- 
ble to  punishment  for  such  enormous  wickedness  ?  who  dares 
to  come  into  this  court  of  justice,  where  he  cannot,  like  all 
others  who  are  arraigned,  pray  to  the  great  and  good  Jupiter, 
and  entreat  help  from  him  ?  from  whom  even  the  immortal  gods 
are  reclaiming  their  property,  before  that  tribunal  which  was 
appointed  for  the  benefit  of  men,  that  they  might  recover  what 
had  been  extorted  unjustly  from  them?  Do  we  marvel  that 
Minerva  at  Athens,  Apollo  at  Delos,  Juno  at  Samos,  Diana  at 
Perga,  and  that  many  other  gods  besides  all  over  Asia  and 
Greece,  were  plundered  by  him,  when  he  could  not  keep  his 
hands  off  the  Capitol  ?  That  temple  which  private  men  are  dec- 
orating and  are  intending  to  decorate  out  of  their  own  riches, 
that  Caius  Verres  would  not  suffer  to  be  decorated  by  a  king ; 
and,  accordingly,  after  he  had  once  conceived  this  nefarious 
wickedness,  he  considered  nothing  in  all  Sicily  afterward  sacred 
or  hallowed ;  and  he  behaved  himself  in  his  province  for  three 
years  in  such  a  manner  that  war  was  thought  to  have  been  de- 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF   VERRES 


457 


clared  by  him,  not  only  against  men,  but  also  against  the  im- 
mortal gods. 

Segesta  is  a  very  ancient  town  in  Sicily,  O  judges,  which  its 
inhabitants  assert  was  founded  by  ^neas  when  he  was  flying 
from  Troy  and  coming  to  this  country.  And  accordingly  the 
Segestans  think  that  they  are  connected  with  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, not  only  by  a  perpetual  alliance  and  friendship,  but  even  by 
some  relationship.  This  town,  as  the  state  of  the  Segestans 
was  at  war  with  the  Carthaginians  on  its  own  account  and  of  its 
own  accord,  was  formerly  stormed  and  destroyed  by  the  Car- 
thaginians ;  and  everything  which  could  be  any  ornament  to  the 
city  was  transported  from  thence  to  Carthage.  There  was 
among  the  Segestans  a  statue  of  Diana,  of  brass,  not  only  in- 
vested with  the  most  sacred  character,  but  also  wrought  with 
the  most  exquisite  skill  and  beauty.  When  transferred  to 
Carthage,  it  only  changed  its  situation  and  its  worshippers;  it 
retained  its  former  sanctity.  For  on  account  of  its  eminent 
beauty  it  seemed,  even  to  their  enemies,  worthy  of  being  most 
religiously  worshipped.  Some  ages  afterward,  Publius  Scipio 
took  Carthage,  in  the  third  Punic  War;  after  which  victory  (re- 
mark the  virtue  and  carefulness  of  the  man,  so  that  you  may 
both  rejoice  at  your  national  examples  of  most  eminent  virtue, 
and  may  also  judge  the  incredible  audacity  of  Verres,  worthy 
of  the  greater  hatred  by  contrasting  it  with  that  virtue),  he  sum- 
moned all  the  Sicilians,  because  he  knew  that  during  a  long 
period  of  time  Sicily  had  repeatedly  been  ravaged  by  the 
Carthaginians,  and  bids  them  seek  for  all  they  had  lost,  and 
promises  them  to  take  the  greatest  pains  to  insure  the  restora- 
tion to  the  different  cities  of  everything  which  had  belonged  to 
them.  Then  those  things  which  had  formerly  been  removed 
from  Himera,  and  which  I  have  mentioned  before,  were  re- 
stored to  the  people  of  Thermae ;  some  things  were  restored  to 
the  Gelans,  some  to  the  Agrigentines ;  among  which  was  that 
noble  bull,  which  that  most  cruel  of  all  tyrants,  Phalaris,  is  said 
to  have  had,  into  which  he  was  accustomed  to  put  men  for  pun- 
ishment, and  to  put  fire  under.  And  when  Scipio  restored  that 
bull  to  the  Agrigentines,  he  is  reported  to  have  said,  that  he 
thought  it  reasonable  for  them  to  consider  whether  it  was  more 
advantageous  to  the  Sicilians  to  be  subject  to  their  own  princes, 
or  to  be  under  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  people,  when  they 


458  CICERO 

had  the  same  thing  as  a  monument  of  the  cruelty  of  their  do- 
mestic masters,  and  of  our  liberality. 

At  that  time  the  same  Diana  of  which  I  am  speaking  is  re- 
stored with  the  greatest  care  to  the  Segestans.  It  is  taken  back 
to  Segesta ;  it  is  replaced  in  its  ancient  situation,  to  the  greatest 
joy  and  delight  of  all  the  citizens.  It  was  placed  at  Segesta  on 
a  very  lofty  pedestal,  on  which  was  cut  in  large  letters  the  name 
of  Publius  Africanus ;  and  a  statement  was  also  engraved  that 
"  he  had  restored  it  after  having  taken  Carthage."  It  was  wor- 
shipped by  the  citizens ;  it  was  visited  by  all  strangers ;  when  I 
was  quaestor  it  was  the  very  first  thing  they  showed  me.  It  was 
a  very  large  and  tall  statue  with  a  flowing  robe,  but  in  spite  of 
its  large  size,  it  gave  the  idea  of  the  age  and  dress  of  a  virgin ; 
her  arrows  hung  from  her  shoulder,  in  her  left  hand  she  carried 
her  bow,  her  right  hand  held  a  burning  torch.  When  that 
enemy  of  all  sacred  things,  that  violator  of  all  religious  scruples 
saw  it,  he  began  to  burn  with  covetousness  and  insanity,  as  if 
he  himself  had  been  struck  with  that  torch.  He  commands  the 
magistrates  to  take  the  statue  down  and  give  it  to  him;  and 
declares  to  them  that  nothing  can  be  more  agreeable  to  him. 
But  they  said  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  do  so  ;  that  they 
were  prevented  from  doing  so,  not  only  by  the  most  extreme 
religious  reverence,  but  also  by  the  greatest  respect  for  their 
own  laws  and  courts  of  justice.  Then  he  began  to  entreat  this 
favor  of  them,  then  to  threaten  them,  then  to  try  and  excite  their 
hopes,  then  to  arouse  their  fears.  They  opposed  to  his  demands 
the  name  of  Africanus;  they  said  that  it  was  the  gift  of  the 
Roman  people ;  that  they  themselves  had  no  right  over  a  thing 
which  a  most  illustrious  general,  having  taken  a  city  of  the 
enemy,  had  chosen  to  stand  there  as  a  monument  of  the  victory 
of  the  Roman  people.  As  he  did  not  relax  in  his  demand,  but 
urged  it  every  day  with  daily  increasing  earnestness,  the  matter 
was  brought  before  the  Senate.  His  demand  raises  a  violent 
outcry  on  all  sides.  And  so  at  that  time,  and  at  his  first  arrival 
at  Segesta,  it  is  refused.  Afterward,  whatever  burdens  could 
be  imposed  on  any  city  in  respect  of  exacting  sailors  and  rowers, 
or  in  levying  corn,  he  imposed  on  the  Segestans  beyond  all 
other  cities,  and  a  good  deal  more  than  they  could  bear.  Be- 
sides that,  he  used  to  summon  their  magistrates  before  him  ;  he 
used  to  send  for  all  the  most  noble  and  most  virtuous  of  the  citi- 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  459 

zens,  to  hurry  them  about  with  him  to  all  the  courts  of  justice  in 
the  province,  to  threaten  every  one  of  them  separately  to  be  the 
ruin  of  him,  and  to  announce  to  them  all  in  a  body  that  he  would 
utterly  destroy  their  city.  Therefore,  at  last,  the  Segestans, 
subdued  by  much  ill  treatment  and  by  great  fear,  resolved  to 
obey  the  command  of  the  prsetor.  With  great  grief  and  lamen- 
tation on  the  part  of  the  whole  city,  with  many  tears  and  wail- 
ings  on  the  part  of  all  the  men  and  women,  a  contract  is  adver- 
tised for  taking  down  the  statue  of  Diana. 

See  now  with  what  religious  reverence  it  is  regarded. 
Know,  O  judges,  that  among  all  the  Segestans  none  was  found, 
whether  free  man  or  slave,  whether  citizen  or  foreigner,  to  dare 
to  touch  that  statue.  Know  that  some  barbarian  workmen 
were  brought  from  Lilybaeum ;  they  at  length,  ignorant  of  the 
whole  business,  and  of  the  religious  character  of  the  image, 
agreed  to  take  it  down  for  a  sum  of  money,  and  took  it  down. 
And  when  it  was  being  taken  out  of  the  city,  how  great  was  the 
concourse  of  women!  how  great  was  the  weeping  of  the  old 
men !  some  of  them  even  recollected  that  day  when  that  same 
Diana  being  brought  back  to  Segesta  from  Carthage,  had  an- 
nounced to  them,  by  its  return,  the  victory  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple. How  different  from  that  time  did  this  day  seem !  then  the 
general  of  the  Roman  people,  a  most  illustrious  man,  was  bring- 
ing back  to  the  Segestans  the  gods  of  their  fathers,  recovered 
from  an  enemy's  city ;  now  a  most  base  and  profligate  praetor 
of  the  same  Roman  people,  was  taking  away,  with  the  most 
nefarious  wickedness,  those  very  same  gods  from  a  city  of  his 
allies.  What  is  more  notorious  throughout  all  Sicily  than  that 
all  the  matrons  and  virgins  of  Segesta  came  together  when 
Diana  was  being  taken  out  of  their  city?  that  they  anointed  her 
with  precious  unguents?  that  they  crowned  her  with  chaplets 
and  flowers  ?  that  they  attended  her  to  the  borders  of  their  terri- 
tory with  frankincense  and  burning  perfumes  ?  If  at  the  time 
you,  by  reason  of  your  covetousness  and  audacity,  did  not,  while 
in  command,  fear  these  religious  feelings  of  the  population,  do 
you  not  fear  them  now,  at  a  time  of  such  peril  to  yourself  and  to 
your  children?  What  man,  against  the  will  of  the  immortal 
gods,  or  what  god,  when  you  so  trample  on  all  the  religious 
reverence  due  to  them,  do  you  think  will  come  to  your  assist- 
ance? Has  that  Diana  inspired  you,  while  in  quiet  and  at 


460  CICERO 

leisure,  with  no  religious  awe — she,  who  though  she  had 
seen  two  cities,  in  which  she  was  placed,  stormed  and  burned, 
was  yet  twice  preserved  from  the  flames  and  weapons  of  two 
wars ;  she  who,  though  she  changed  her  situation  owing  to  the 
victory  of  the  Carthaginians,  yet  did  not  lose  her  holy  charac- 
ter ;  and  who,  by  the  valor  of  Publius  Africanus,  afterward  re- 
covered her  old  worship,  together  with  her  old  situation  ?  And 
when  this  crime  had  been  executed,  as  the  pedestal  was  empty, 
and  the  name  of  Publius  Africanus  carved  on  it,  the  affair  ap- 
peared scandalous  and  intolerable  to  everyone,  that  not  only 
was  religion  trampled  on,  but  also  that  Caius  Verres  had  taken 
away  the  glory  of  the  exploits,  the  memorial  of  the  virtues,  the 
monument  of  the  victory  of  Publius  Africanus,  that  most  gal- 
lant of  men.  But  when  he  was  told  afterward  of  the  pedestal 
and  the  inscription,  he  thought  that  men  would  forget  the  whole 
affair,  if  he  took  away  the  pedestal  too,  which  was  serving  as  a 
sort  of  sign-post  to  point  out  his  crime.  And  so,  by  his  com- 
mand, the  Segestans  contracted  to  take  away  the  pedestal  too ; 
and  the  terms  of  that  contract  were  read  to  you  from  the  public 
registers  of  the  Segestans,  at  the  former  pleading. 

Now,  O  Publius  Scipio,  I  appeal  to  you ;  to  you,  I  say,  a  most 
virtuous  and  accomplished  youth ;  from  you  I  request  and  de- 
mand that  assistance  which  is  due  to  your  family  and  to  your 
name.  Why  do  you  take  the  part  of  that  man  who  has  embez- 
zled the  credit  and  honor  of  your  family  ?  Why  do  you  wish 
him  to  be  defended  ?  Why  am  I  undertaking  what  is  properly 
your  business  ?  Why  am  I  supporting  a  burden  which  ought 
to  fall  on  you  ? — Marcus  Tullius  is  reclaiming  the  monuments 
of  Publius  Africanus  ;  Publius  Scipio  is  defending  the  man  who 
took  them  away.  Though  it  is  a  principle  handed  down  to  us 
from  our  ancestors,  for  everyone  to  defend  the  monuments  of 
his  ancestors,  in  such  a  way  as  not  even  to  allow  them  to  be  dec- 
orated by  one  of  another  name,  will  you  take  the  part  of  that 
man  who  is  not  charged  merely  with  having  in  some  degree 
spoiled  the  view  of  the  monuments  of  Publius  Scipio,  but  who 
has  entirely  removed  and  destroyed  them  ?  Who,  then,  in  the 
name  of  the  immortal  gods,  will  defend  the  memory  of  Publius 
Scipio  now  that  he  is  dead?  who  will  defend  the  memorials  and 
evidences  of  his  valor,  if  you  desert  and  abandon  them  ;  and  not 
only  allow  them  to  be  plundered  and  taken  away,  but  even  de- 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        461 

fend  their  plunderer  and  destroyer?  The  Segestans  are  pres- 
ent, your  clients,  the  allies  and  friends  of  the  Roman  people. 
They  inform  you  that  Publius  Africanus,  when  he  had  de- 
stroyed Carthage,  restored  the  image  of  Diana  to  their  ances- 
tors ;  and  that  was  set  up  among  the  Segestans  and  dedicated  in 
the  name  of  that  general ;  that  Verres  has  had  it  taken  down  and 
carried  away,  and  as  far  as  that  is  concerned,  has  utterly  effaced 
and  extinguished  the  name  of  Publius  Scipio.  They  entreat 
and  pray  you  to  restore  the  object  of  their  worship  to  them,  its 
proper  credit  and  glory  to  your  own  family,  so  enabling  them  by 
your  assistance  to  recover  from  the  house  of  a  robber,  what  they 
recovered  from  the  city  of  their  enemies  by  the  beneficence  of 
Publius  Africanus. 

What  can  you  reply  to  them  with  honor,  or  what  can  they  do 
but  implore  the  aid  of  you  and  your  good  faith?  They  are 
present,  they  do  implore  it.  You,  O  Publius,  can  protect  the 
honor  of  your  family  renown ;  you  can,  you  have  every  advan- 
tage which  either  fortune  or  nature  ever  gives  to  men.  I  do 
not  wish  to  anticipate  you  in  gathering  the  fruit  that  belongs 
to  you ;  I  am  not  covetous  of  the  glory  which  ought  to  belong 
to  another.  It  does  not  correspond  to  the  modesty  of  my  dis- 
position, while  Publius  Scipio,  a  most  promising  young  man, 
is  alive  and  well,  to  put  myself  forward  as  the  defender  and  ad- 
vocate of  the  memorials  of  Publius  Scipio.  Wherefore,  if  you 
will  undertake  the  advocacy  of  your  family  renown,  it  will  be- 
hoove me  not  only  to  be  silent  about  your  monuments,  but  even 
to  be  glad  that  the  fortune  of  Publius  Africanus,  though  dead, 
is  such,  that  his  honor  is  defended  by  those  who  are  of  the  same 
family  as  himself,  and  that  it  requires  no  adventitious  assistance. 
But  if  your  friendship  with  that  man  is  an  obstacle  to  you — if 
you  think  that  this  thing  which  I  demand  of  you  is  not  so  inti- 
mately connected  with  your  duty — then  I,  as  your  locum  tenens, 
will  succeed  to  your  office,  I  will  undertake  that  business  which 
I  have  thought  not  to  belong  to  me.  Let  that  proud  aristoc- 
racy give  up  complaining  that  the  Roman  people  willingly 
gives,  and  at  all  times  has  given,  honors  to  new  and  diligent 
men.  It  is  a  foolish  complaint  that  virtue  should  be  of  the 
greatest  influence  in  that  city  which  by  its  virtue  governs  all 
nations.  Let  the  image  of  Publius  Africanus  be  in  the  houses 
of  other  men ;  let  heroes  now  dead  be  adorned  with  virtue  and 


462  CICERO 

glory.  He  was  such  a  man,  he  deserved  so  well  of  the  Roman 
people,  that  he  deserves  to  be  recommended  to  the  affection, 
not  of  one  single  family,  but  of  the  whole  state.  And  so  it 
partly  does  belong  to  me  also  to  defend  his  honors  with  all  my 
power,  because  I  belong  to  that  city  which  he  rendered  great, 
and  illustrious,  and  renowned;  and  especially,  because  I  prac- 
tise, to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  those  virtues  in  which  he  was 
pre-eminent — equity,  industry,  temperance,  the  protection  of 
the  unhappy,  and  hatred  of  the  dishonest ;  a  relationship  in  pur- 
suits and  habits  which  is  almost  as  important  as  that  of  which 
you  boast,  the  relationship  of  name  and  family. 

I  reclaim  from  you,  O  Verres,  the  monument  of  Publius  Afri- 
canus ;  I  abandon  the  cause  of  the  Sicilians,  which  I  undertook ; 
let  there  be  no  trial  of  you  for  extortion  at  present ;  never  mind 
the  injuries  of  the  Segestans ;  let  the  pedestal  of  Publius  Afri- 
canus  be  restored ;  let  the  name  of  that  invincible  commander 
be  engraved  on  it  anew ;  let  that  most  beautiful  statue,  which 
was  recovered  when  Carthage  was  taken,  be  replaced.  It  is  not 
I,  the  defender  of  the  Sicilians — it  is  not  I,  your  prosecutor — 
they  are  not  the  Segestans  who  demand  this  of  you ;  but  he  who 
has  taken  on  himself  the  defence  and  "the  preservation  of  the 
renown  and  glory  of  Publius  Africanus.  I  am  not  afraid  of  not 
being  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  my  performance  of  this 
duty  to  Publius  Servilius  the  judge ;  who,  as  he  has  performed 
great  exploits,  and  raised  very  many  monuments  of  his  good 
deeds,  and  has  a  natural  anxiety  about  them,  will  be  glad,  for- 
sooth, to  leave  them  an  object  of  care  and  protection  not  only 
to  his  own  posterity,  but  to  all  brave  men  and  good  citizens ; 
and  not  as  a  mark  for  the  plunder  of  rogues.  I  am  not  afraid 
of  its  displeasing  you,  O  Quintus  Catulus,  to  whom  the  most 
superb  and  splendid  monument  in  the  whole  world  belongs, 
that  there  should  be  as  many  guardians  of  such  monuments  as 
possible,  or  that  all  good  men  should  think  it  was  a  part  of  their 
duty  to  defend  the  glory  of  another.  And  indeed  I  am  so  far 
moved  by  the  other  robberies  and  atrocities  of  that  fellow, 
as  to  think  them  worthy  of  great  reproof;  but  that  might  be 
sufficient  for  them.  But  in  this  instance  I  am  roused  to  such 
indignation,  that  nothing  appears  to  me  possible  to  be  more 
scandalous  or  more  intolerable.  Shall  Verres  adorn  his  house, 
full  of  adultery,  full  of  debauchery,  full  of  infamy,  with  the  mon- 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        463 

uments  of  Africanus  ?  Shall  Verres  place  the  memorial  of  that 
most  temperate  and  religious  man,  the  image  of  the  ever  virgin 
Diana,  in  that  house  in  which  the  iniquities  of  harlots  and  pimps 
are  incessantly  being  practised? 

But  is  this  the  only  monument  of  Africanus  which  you  have 
violated  ?  What !  did  you  take  away  from  the  people  of  Tyn- 
daris  an  image  of  Mercury  most  beautifully  made,  and  placed 
there  by  the  beneficence  of  the  same  Scipio  ?  And  how  ?  O 
ye  immortal  gods !  How  audaciously,  how  infamously,  how 
shamelessly  did  you  do  so!  You  have  lately,  O  judges,  heard 
the  deputies  from  Tyndaris,  most  honorable  men,  and  the  chief 
men  of  that  city,  say  that  the  Mercury,  which  in  their  sacred 
anniversaries  was  worshipped  among  them  with  the  extremest 
religious  reverence,  which  Publius  Africanus,  after  he  had  taken 
Carthage,  had  given  to  the  Tyndaritans,  not  only  as  a  monu- 
ment of  his  victory,  but  as  a  memorial  and  evidence  of  their 
loyalty  to  and  alliance  with  the  Roman  people,  had  been  taken 
away  by  the  violence,  and  wickedness,  and  arbitrary  power  of 
this  man ;  who,  when  he  first  came  to  their  city,  in  a  moment, 
as  if  it  were  not  only  a  becoming,  but  an  indispensable  thing  to 
be  done — as  if  the  Senate  had  ordered  it  and  the  Roman  people 
had  sanctioned  it — in  a  moment,  I  say,  ordered  them  to  take  the 
statue  down  and  to  transport  it  to  Messana.  And  as  this  ap- 
peared a  scandalous  thing  to  those  who  were  present  and  who 
heard  it,  it  was  not  persevered  in  by  him  during  the  first  period 
of  his  visit;  but  when  he  departed,  he  ordered  Sopater,  their 
chief  magistrate,  whose  statement  you  have  heard,  to  take  it 
down.  When  he  refused,  he  threatened  him  violently;  and 
then  he  left  the  city.  The  magistrate  refers  the  matter  to  the 
Senate ;  there  is  a  violent  outcry  on  all  sides.  To  make  my  story 
short,  some  time  afterward  he  comes  to  that  city  again.  Im- 
mediately he  asks  about  the  statue.  He  is  answered  that  the 
Senate  will  not  allow  it  to  be  removed ;  that  capital  punishment 
is  threatened  to  anyone  who  should  touch  it  without  the  orders 
of  the  Senate  ;  the  impiety  of  removing  is  also  urged.  Then  says 
he,  "  What  do  you  mean  by  talking  to  me  of  impiety  ?  or  about 
punishment  ?  or  about  the  Senate  ?  I  will  not  leave  you  alive ; 
you  shall  be  scourged  to  death  if  the  statue  is  not  given  up." 
Sopater  with  tears  reports  the  matter  to  the  Senate  a  second 
time,  and  relates  to  them  the  covetousness  and  the  threats  of 


464  CICERO 

Verres.  The  Senate  gives  Sopater  no  answer,  but  breaks  up 
in  agitation  and  perplexity.  Sopater,  being  summoned  by  the 
praetor's  messenger,  informs  him  of  the  state  of  the  case,  and 
says  that  it  is  absolutely  impossible. 

And  all  these  things  (for  I  do  not  think  that  I  ought  to  omit 
any  particular  of  his  impudence)  were  done  openly  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  assembly,  while  Verres  was  sitting  on  his  chair  of 
office,  in  a  lofty  situation.  It  was  the  depth  of  winter;  the 
weather,  as  you  heard  Sopater  himself  state,  was  bitterly  cold ; 
heavy  rain  was  falling;  when  that  fellow  orders  the  lictors  to 
throw  Sopater  headlong  down  from  the  portico  on  which  he 
himself  was  sitting,  and  to  strip  him  naked.  The  command 
was  scarcely  out  of  his  mouth,  before  you  might  have  seen  him 
stripped  and  surrounded  by  the  lictors.  All  thought  that  the 
unhappy  and  innocent  man  was  going  to  be  scourged.  They 
were  mistaken.  Do  you  think  that  Verres  would  scourge  with- 
out any  reason  an  ally  and  friend  of  the  Roman  people  ?  He 
is  not  so  wicked.  All  vices  are  not  to  be  found  in  that  man ;  he 
was  never  cruel.  He  treated  the  man  with  great  gentleness 
and  clemency.  In  the  middle  of  the  forum  there  are  some 
statues  of  the  Marcelli,  as  there  are  in  most  of  the  other  towns 
of  Sicily ;  out  of  these  he  selected  the  statue  of  Caius  Marcellus, 
whose  services  to  that  city  and  to  the  whole  province  were  most 
recent  and  most  important.  On  that  statue  he  orders  Sopater, 
a  man  of  noble  birth  in  his  city,  and  at  that  very  time  invested 
with  the  chief  magistracy,  to  be  placed  astride  and  bound  to  it. 
What  torture  he  suffered  when  he  was  bound  naked  in  the  open 
air,  in  the  rain  and  in  the  cold,  must  be  manifest  to  everybody. 
Nor  did  he  put  an  end  to  this  insult  and  barbarity,  till  the  peo- 
ple and  the  whole  multitude,  moved  by  the  atrocity  of  his  con- 
duct and  by  pity  for  his  victim,  compelled  the  Senate  by  their 
outcries  to  promise  him  that  statue  of  Mercury.  They  cried 
out  that  the  immortal  gods  themselves  would  avenge  the  act, 
and  that  in  the  mean  time  it  was  not  fit  that  an  innocent  man 
should  be  murdered.  Then  the  Senate  comes  to  him  in  a  body, 
and  promises  him  the  statue.  And  so  Sopater  is  taken  down 
scarcely  alive  from  the  statue  of  Marcellus,  to  which  he  had 
almost  become  frozen.  I  cannot  adequately  accuse  that  man 
if  I  were  to  wish  to  do  so ;  it  requires  not  only  genius,  but  an 
extraordinary  amount  of  skill. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        465 

This  appears  to  be  a  single  crime,  this  of  the  Tyndaritan  Mer- 
cury, and  it  is  brought  forward  by  me  as  a  single  one ;  but  there 
are  many  crimes  contained  in  it — only  I  do  not  know  how  to 
separate  and  distinguish  them.  It  is  a  case  of  money  extorted, 
for  he  took  away  from  the  allies  a  statue  worth  a  large  sum  of 
money.  It  is  a  case  of  embezzlement,  because  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  appropriate  a  public  statue  belonging  to  the  Roman  peo- 
ple, taken  from  the  spoils  of  the  enemy,  placed  where  it  was  in 
the  name  of  our  general.  It  is  a  case  of  treason,  because  he 
dared  to  overturn  and  to  carry  away  monuments  of  our  empire, 
of  our  glory,  and  of  our  exploits.  It  is  a  case  of  impiety,  be- 
cause he  violated  the  most  solemn  principles  of  religion.  It  is 
a  case  of  inhumanity,  because  he  invented  a  new  and  extraor- 
dinary description  of  punishment  for  an  innocent  man,  an  ally 
and  friend  of  our  nation.  But  what  the  other  crime  is,  that  I 
am  unable  to  say ;  I  know  not  by  what  name  to  call  the  crime 
which  he  committed  with  respect  to  the  statue  of  Caius  Marcel- 
lus.  What  is  the  meaning  of  it?  Is  it  because  he  was  the 
patron  of  the  Sicilians  ?  What  then  ?  What  has  that  to  do  with 
it  ?  Ought  that  fact  to  have  had  influence  to  procure  assistance, 
or  to  bring  disaster  on  his  clients  and  friends?  Was  it  your 
object  to  show  that  patrons  were  no  protection  against  your 
violence  ?  Who  is  there  who  would  not  be  aware  that  there  is 
greater  power  in  the  authority  of  a  bad  man  who  is  present,  than 
the  protection  of  good  men  who  are  absent  ?  Or  do  you  merely 
wish  to  prove  by  this  conduct,  your  unprecedented  insolence, 
and  pride,  and  obstinacy  ?  You  thought,  I  imagine,  that  you 
were  taking  something  from  the  dignity  of  the  Marcelli  ?  And 
therefore  now  the  Marcelli  are  not  the  patrons  of  the  Sicilians. 
Verres  has  been  substituted  in  their  place.  What  virtue  or 
what  dignity  did  you  think  existed  in  you,  that  you  should  at- 
tempt to  transfer  to  yourself,  and  to  take  away  from  these  most 
trusty  and  most  ancient  patrons,  so  illustrious  a  body  of  clients 
as  that  splendid  province  ?  Can  you,  with  your  stupidity,  and 
worthlessness,  and  laziness  defend  the  cause,  I  will  not  say  of 
all  Sicily,  but  even  of  one,  the  very  meanest  of  the  Sicilians  ? 
Was  the  statue  of  Marcellus  to  serve  you  for  a  pillory  for  the 
clients  of  the  Marcelli  ?  Did  you,  out  of  his  honor,  seek  for 
punishments  of  those  very  men  who  had  held  him  in  honor? 
What  followed?  What  did  you  think  would  happen  to  your 
30 


466  CICERO 

statues?  was  it  that  which  did  happen?  For  the  people  of 
Tyndaris  threw  down  the  statue  of  Verres,  which  he  had 
ordered  to  be  erected  in  his  own  honor  near  the  Marcelli,  and 
even  on  a  higher  pedestal,  the  very  moment  that  they  heard 
that  a  successor  had  been  appointed  to  him. 

The  fortune  of  the  Sicilians  has  then  given  you  Caius  Mar- 
cellus  for  a  judge,  so  that  we  may  now  surrender  you,  fettered 
and  bound,  to  appease  the  injured  sanctity  of  him  to  whose 
statue  Sicilians  were  bound  while  you  were  praetor.  And  in  the 
first  place,  O  judges,  that  man  said  that  the  people  of  Tyndaris 
had  sold  his  statue  to  Caius  Marcellus  /Eserninus,  who  is  here 
present.  And  he  hoped  that  Caius  Marcellus  himself  would 
assert  thus  much  for  his  sake,  though  it  never  seemed  to  me  to 
be  very  likely  that  a  young  man  born  in  that  rank,  the  patron 
of  Sicily,  would  lend  his  name  to  that  fellow  to  enable  him  to 
transfer  his  guilt  to  another.  But  still  I  made  such  provision, 
and  took  such  precaution  against  every  possible  bearing  of  the 
case,  that  if  anyone  had  been  found  who  was  ever  so  anxious 
to  take  the  guilt  and  crime  of  Verres  upon  himself,  still  he  would 
not  have  taken  anything  by  his  motion,  for  I  brought  down  to 
court  such  witnesses,  and  I  had  with  me  such  written  docu- 
ments, that  it  could  not  have  been  possible  to  have  entertained 
a  doubt  about  that  man's  actions.  There  are  public  documents 
to  prove  that  that  Mercury  was  transported  to  Messana  at  the 
expense  of  the  state.  They  state  at  what  expense;  and  that 
a  man  named  Poleas  was  ordered  by  the  public  authority  to 
superintend  the  business — what  more  would  you  have  ?  Where 
is  he?  He  is  close  at  hand,  he  is  a  witness,  by  the  command 
of  Sopater  the  proagorus.  Who  is  he?  The  man  who  was 
bound  to  the  statue.  What!  where  is  he?  He  is  a  witness — 
you  have  seen  the  man,  and  you  have  heard  his  statement. 
Demetrius,  the  master  of  the  gymnastic  school,  superintended 
the  pulling  down  of  the  statue,  because  he  was  appointed  to 
manage  that  business.  What  ?  is  it  we  who  say  this  ?  No,  he 
is  present  himself;  moreover,  that  Verres  himself  lately  prom- 
ised at  Rome,  that  he  would  restore  that  statue  to  the  deputies, 
if  the  evidence  already  given  in  the  affair  were  removed,  and  if 
security  were  given  that  the  Tyndaritans  would  not  give  evi- 
dence against  him,  has  been  stated  before  you  by  Zosippus  and 
Hismenias,  most  noble  men,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  city  of 
Tyndaris. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        467 

* 

What?  did  you  not  also  at  Agrigentum  take  away  a  monu- 
ment of  the  same  Publius  Scipio,  a  most  beautiful  statue  of 
Apollo,  on  whose  thigh  there  was  the  name  of  Myron,  inscribed 
in  diminutive  silver  letters,  out  of  that  most  holy  temple  of 
^Esculapius?  And  when,  O  judges,  he  had  privily  committed 
that  atrocity,  and  when  in  that  most  nefarious  crime  and  robbery 
he  had  employed  some  of  the  most  worthless  men  of  the  city  as 
his  guides  and  assistants,  the  whole  city  was  greatly  excited. 
For  the  Agrigentines  were  regretting  at  the  same  time  the  kind- 
ness of  Africanus,  and  a  national  object  of  their  worship,  and  an 
ornament  of  their  city,  and  a  record  of  their  victory,  and  an  evi- 
dence of  their  alliance  with  us.  And  therefore  a  command  is 
imposed  on  those  men  who  were  the  chief  men  of  the  city,  and 
a  charge  is  given  to  the  quaestors  and  aediles  to  keep  watch  by 
night  over  the  sacred  edifices.  And,  indeed,  at  Agrigentum  (I 
imagine,  on  account  of  the  great  number  and  virtue  of  these 
men,  and  because  great  numbers  of  Roman  citizens,  gallant  and 
intrepid  and  honorable  men,  live  and  trade  in  that  town  among 
the  Agrigentines  in  the  greatest  harmony)  he  did  not  dare  open- 
ly to  carry  off,  or  even  to  beg  for  the  things  that  took  his  fancy. 
There  is  a  temple  of  Hercules  at  Agrigentum,  not  far  from  the 
forum,  considered  very  holy  and  greatly  reverenced  among  the 
citizens.  In  it  there  is  a  brazen  image  of  Hercules  himself,  than 
which  I  cannot  easily  tell  where  I  have  seen  anything  finer  (al- 
though I  am  not  very  much  of  a  judge  of  those  matters,  though 
I  have  seen  plenty  of  specimens) ;  so  greatly  venerated  among 
them,  O  judges,  that  his  mouth  and  his  chin  are  a  little  worn 
away,  because  men  in  addressing  their  prayers  and  congratula- 
tions to  him,  are  accustomed  not  only  to  worship  the  statue,  but 
even  to  kiss  it.  While  Verres  was  at  Agrigentum,  on  a  sudden, 
one  stormy  night,  a  great  assemblage  of  armed  slaves,  and  a 
great  attack  on  this  temple  by  them,  takes  place,  under  the  lead- 
ing Timarchides.  A  cry  is  raised  by  the  watchmen  and  guardi- 
ans of  the  temple.  And,  at  first,  when  they  attempted  to  resist 
them  and  to  defend  the  temple,  they  are  driven  back  much  in- 
jured with  sticks  and  bludgeons.  Afterward,  when  the  bolts 
were  forced  open,  and  the  doors  dashed  in,  they  endeavor  to  pull 
down  the  statue  and  to  overthrow  it  with  levers;  meantime, 
from  the  outcries  of  the  keepers,  a  report  got  abroad  over  the 
whole  city,  that  the  national  gods  were  being  stormed,  not  by  the 


468  CICERO 

unexpected  invasion  of  enemies,  or  by  the  sudden  irruption  of 
pirates,  but  that  a  well-armed  and  fully-equipped  band  of  fugitive 
slaves  from  the  house  and  retinue  of  the  praetor  had  attacked 
them.  No  one  in  Agrigentum  was  either  so  advanced  in  age,  or 
so  infirm  in  strength,  as  not  to  rise  up  on  that  night,  awakened 
by  that  news,  and  to  seize  whatever  weapon  chance  put  into  his 
hands.  So  in  a  very  short  time  men  are  assembled  at  the  temple 
from  every  part  of  the  city.  Already,  for  more  than  an  hour, 
numbers  of  men  had  been  laboring  at  pulling  down  that  statue; 
and  all  that  time  it  gave  no  sign  of  being  shaken  in  any  part; 
while  some,  putting  levers  under  it,  were  endeavoring  to  throw 
it  down,  and  others,  having  bound  cords  to  all  its  limbs,  were 
trying  to  pull  it  toward  them.  On  a  sudden  all  the  Agrigentines 
collect  together  at  the  place ;  stones  are  thrown  in  numbers ;  the 
nocturnal  soldiers  of  that  illustrious  commander  run  away — but 
they  take  with  them  two  very  small  statues,  in  order  not  to  re- 
turn to  that  robber  of  all  holy  things  entirely  empty-handed. 
The  Sicilians  are  never  in  such  distress  as  not  to  be  able  to  say 
something  facetious  and  neat;  as  they  did  on  this  occasion. 
And  so  they  said  that  this  enormous  boar  had  a  right  to  be  ac- 
counted one  of  the  labors  of  Hercules,  no  less  than  the  other 
boar  of  Erymanthus. 

The  people  of  Assorum,  gallant  and  loyal  men,  afterward  imi- 
tated this  brave  conduct  of  the  Agrigentines,  though  they  did  not 
come  of  so  powerful  or  so  distinguished  a  city.  There  is  a  river 
called  Chrysas,  which  flows  through  the  territories  of  Assorum. 
Chrysas,  among  that  people,  is  considered  a  god,  and  is  wor- 
shipped with  the  greatest  reverence.  His  temple  is  in  the  fields, 
near  the  road  which  goes  from  Assorum  to  Enna.  In  it  there  is 
an  image  of  Chrysas,  exquisitely  made  of  marble.  He  did  not 
dare  to  beg  that  of  the  Assorians  on  account  of  the  extraordinary 
sanctity  of  that  temple;  so  he  intrusts  the  business  to  Tlepole- 
mus  and  Hiero.  They,  having  prepared  and  armed  a  body  of 
men,  come  by  night;  they  break  in  the  doors  of  the  temple;  the 
keepers  of  the  temple  and  the  guardians  hear  them  in  time.  A 
trumpet,  the  signal  of  alarm  well  known  to  all  the  neighborhood, 
is  sounded;  men  come  in  from  the  country.  Tlepolemus  is 
turned  out  and  put  to  flight;  nor  was  anything  missed  out  of  the 
temple  of  Chrysas  except  one  very  diminutive  image  of  brass. 
There  is  a  temple  of  the  mighty  mother  Cybele  at  Enguinum,  for 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        469 

I  must  now  not  only  mention  each  instance  with  the  greatest 
brevity,  but  I  must  even  pass  over  a  great  many,  in  order  to 
come  to  the  greater  and  more  remarkable  thefts  and  atrocities 
of  this  sort  which  this  man  has  committed.  In  this  temple  that 
same  Publius  Scipio,  a  man  excelling  in  every  possible  good 
quality,  had  placed  breast-plates  and  helmets  of  brass  of  Corin- 
thian workmanship,  and  some  huge  ewers  of  a  similar  descrip- 
tion, and  wrought  with  the  same  exquisite  skill,  and  had  in- 
scribed his  own  name  upon  them.  Why  should  I  make  any 
more  statements  or  utter  any  farther  complaints  about  that  man's 
conduct?  He  took  away,  O  judges,  every  one  of  those  things. 
He  left  nothing  in  that  most  holy  temple  except  the  traces  of  the 
religion  he  had  trampled  on,  and  the  name  of  Publius  Scipio. 
The  spoils  won  from  the  enemy,  the  memorials  of  our  command- 
ers, the  ornaments  and  decorations  of  our  temples,  will  hereafter, 
when  these  illustrious  names  are  lost,  be  reckoned  in  the  furni- 
ture and  appointments  of  Caius  Verres.  Are  you,  forsooth,  the 
only  man  who  delights  in  Corinthian  vases?  Are  you  the  best 
judge  in  the  world  of  the  mixture  of  that  celebrated  bronze,  and 
of  the  delicate  tracery  of  that  work?  Did  not  the  great  Scipio, 
that  most  learned  and  accomplished  man,  understand  it  too? 
But  do  you,  a  man  without  one  single  virtue,  without  education, 
without  natural  ability,  and  without  any  information,  understand 
them  and  value  them?  Beware  lest  he  be  seen  to  have  sur- 
passed you  and  those  other  men  who  wished  to  be  thought  so 
elegant,  not  only  in  temperance,  but  in  judgment  and  taste;  for 
it  was  because  he  thoroughly  understood  how  beautiful  they 
were,  that  he  thought  that  they  were  made  not  for  the  luxury  of 
men,  but  for  the  ornamenting  of  temples  and  cities,  in  order  that 
they  might  appear  to  our  posterity  to  be  holy  and  sacred  monu- 
ments. 

Listen,  also,  O  judges,  to  the  man's  singular  covetousness, 
audacity  and  madness,  especially  in  polluting  those  sacred 
things,  which  not  only  may  not  be  touched  with  the  hands,  but 
which  may  not  be  violated  even  in  thought.  There  is  a  shrine 
of  Ceres  among  the  Catenans  of  the  same  holy  nature  as  the  one 
at  Rome,  and  worshipped  as  the  goddess  is  worshipped  among 
foreign  nations,  and  in  almost  every  country  in  the  world.  In 
the  inmost  part  of  that  shrine  there  was  an  extremely  ancient 
statue  of  Ceres,  as  to  which  men  were  not  only  ignorant  of  what 


470  CICERO 

sort  it  was,  but  even  of  its  existence.  For  the  entrance  into  that 
shrine  does  not  belong  to  men,  the  sacred  ceremonies  are  accus- 
tomed to  be  performed  by  women  and  virgins.  Verres's  slaves 
stole  this  statue  by  night  out  of  that  most  holy  and  most  ancient 
temple.  The  next  day  the  priestesses  of  Ceres,  and  the  female 
attendants  of  that  temple,  women  of  great  age,  noble,  and  of 
proved  virtue,  report  the  affair  to  their  magistrates.  It  appeared 
to  all  a  most  bitter,  and  scandalous,  and  miserable  business. 
Then  that  man,  influenced  by  tj^e  atrocity  of  the  action,  in  order 
that  all  suspicion  of  that  crime  might  be  removed  from  himself, 
employs  someone  connected  with  him  by  ties  of  hospitality  to 
find  a  man  that  he  might  accuse  of  having  done  it,  and  bids  him 
take  care  that  he  be  convicted  of  the  accusation,  so  that  he  him- 
self might  not  be  subject  to  the  charge.  The  matter  is  not  de- 
layed. For  when  he  had  departed  from  Catana,  an  information 
is  laid  against  a  certain  slave.  He  is  accused;  false  witnesses  are 
suborned  against  him;  the  whole  Senate  sits  in  judgment  on  the 
affair,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Catanans.  The  priestesses 
are  summoned ;  they  are  examined  secretly  in  the  senate-house, 
and  asked  what  had  been  done,  and  how  they  thought  that  the 
statue  had  been  carried  off.  They  answered  that  the  servants  of 
the  praetor  had  been  seen  in  the  temple.  The  matter,  which  pre- 
viously had  not  been  very  obscure,  began  to  be  clear  enough  by 
the  evidence  of  the  priestesses.  The  judges  deliberate;  the  in- 
nocent slave  is  acquitted  by  every  vote,  in  order  that  you  may 
the  more  easily  be  able  to  condemn  this  man  by  all  your  votes. 
For  what  is  it  that  you  ask,  O  Verres?  What  do  you  hope  for? 
What  do  you  expect?  What  god  or  man  do  you  think  will 
come  to  your  assistance?  Did  you  send  slaves  to  that  place  to 
plunder  a  temple,  where  it  was  not  lawful  for  free  citizens  to  go, 
not  even  for  the  purpose  of  praying?  Did  you  not  hesitate  to 
lay  violent  hands  on  those  things  from  which  the  laws  of  religion 
enjoined  you  to  keep  even  your  eyes?  Although  it  was  not  even 
because  you  were  charmed  by  the  eye  that  you  were  led  into  this 
wicked  and  nefarious  conduct;  for  you  coveted  what  you  had 
never  seen.  You  took  a  violent  fancy,  I  say,  to  that  which  you 
had  not  previously  beheld.  From  your  ears  did  you  conceive 
this  covetousness,  so  violent  that  no  fear,  no  religious  scruple,  no 
power  of  the  gods,  no  regard  for  the  opinion  of  men  could  re- 
strain it.  Oh!  but  you  had  heard  of  it,  I  suppose,  from  some 


THE   PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  471 

good  man,  from  some  good  authority.  How  could  you  have 
done  that,  when  you  could  never  have  heard  of  it  from  any  man 
at  all?  You  heard  of  it,  therefore,  from  a  woman;  since  men 
could  not  have  seen  it,  nor  known  of  it.  What  sort  of  woman 
do  you  think  that  she  must  have  been,  O  judges?  What  a  mod- 
est woman  must  she  have  been  to  converse  with  Verres !  What 
a  pious  woman,  to  show  him  a  plan  for  robbing  a  temple!  But 
it  is  no  great  wonder  if  those  sacred  ceremonies  which  are  per- 
formed by  the  most  extreme  chastity  of  virgins  and  matrons 
were  violated  by  his  adultery  and  profligacy. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  think?  Is  this  the  only  thing  that  he 
began  to  desire  from  mere  hearing,  when  he  had  never  seen  it 
himself?  No,  there  were  many  other  things  besides;  of  which 
I  will  select  the  plundering  of  that  most  noble  and  ancient  tem- 
ple, concerning  which  you  heard  witnesses  give  their  evidence 
at  the  former  pleading.  Now,  I  beseech  you,  listen  to  the  same 
story  once  more,  and  attend  carefully  as  you  hitherto  have  done. 
There  is  an  island  called  Melita,  O  judges,  separated  from  Sicily 
by  a  sufficiently  wide  and  perilous  navigation,  in  which  there  is  a 
town  of  the  same  name,  to  which  Verres  never  went,  though  it 
was  for  three  years  a  manufactory  to  him  for  weaving  women's 
garments.  Not  far  from  that  town,  on  a  promontory,  is  an  an- 
cient temple  of  Juno,  which  was  always  considered  so  holy,  that 
it  was  not  only  always  kept  inviolate  and  sacred  in  those  Punic 
Wars,  which  in  those  regions  were  carried  on  almost  wholly  by 
the  naval  forces,  but  even  by  the  bands  of  pirates  which  ravage 
those  seas.  Moreover,  it  has  been  handed  down  to  us  by  tra- 
dition, that  once,  when  the  fleet  of  King  Masinissa  was  forced  to 
put  into  these  ports,  the  king's  lieutenant  took  away  some  ivory 
teeth  of  an  incredible  size  out  of  the  temple,  and  carried  them 
into  Africa,  and  gave  them  to  Masinissa;  that  at  first  the  king 
was  delighted  with  the  present,  but  afterward,  when  he  heard 
where  they  had  come  from,  he  immediately  sent  trustworthy 
men  in  a  quinquereme  to  take  those  teeth  back ;  and  that  there 
was  engraved  on  them  in  Punic  characters,  "  that  Masinissa  the 
king  had  accepted  them  ignorantly ;  but  that,  when  he  knew  the 
truth,  he  had  taken  care  that  they  should  be  replaced  and  re- 
stored." There  was  besides  an  immense  quantity  of  ivory,  and 
many  ornaments,  among  which  were  some  ivory  Victories  of 
ancient  workmanship,  and  wrought  with  exquisite  skill.  Not 


472  CICERO 

to  dwell  too  long  on  this,  he  took  care  to  have  all  these  things 
taken  down  and  carried  off  at  one  swoop  by  means  of  the  slaves 
of  the  Venus  whom  he  had  sent  thither  for  that  purpose. 

0  ye  immortal  gods !  what  sort  of  man  is  it  that  I  am  accus- 
ing?   Whom  is  it  that  I  am  prosecuting  according  to  our  laws, 
and  by  this  regular  process?    Concerning  whom  is  it  that  you 
are  going  to  give  your  judicial  decision?    The  deputies  from 
Melita  sent  by  the  public  authority  of  their  state,  say  that  the 
shrine  of  Juno  was  plundered;  that  that  man  left  nothing  in  that 
most  holy  temple;  that  that  place,  to  which  the  fleets  of  enemies 
often  came,  where  pirates  are  accustomed  to  winter  almost  every 
year,  and  which  no  pirate  ever  violated,  no  enemy  ever  attacked 
before,  was  so  plundered  by  that  single  man,  that  nothing  what- 
ever was  left  in  it.     What,  then,  now  are  we  to  say  of  him  as  a 
defendant,  of  me  as  an  accuser,  of  this  tribunal?    Is  he  proved 
guilty  of  grave  crimes,  or  is  he  brought  into  this  court  on  mere 
suspicion?     Gods  are  proved  to  have  been  carried  off,  temples 
to  have  been  plundered,  cities  to  have  been  stripped  of  every- 
thing.    And  of  those  actions  he  has  left  himself  no  power  of  de- 
nying one,  no  plea  for  defending  one.     In  every  particular  he  is 
convicted  by  me;  he  is  detected  by  the  witnesses;  he  is  over- 
whelmed by  his  own  admissions;   he  is  caught  in  the  evident 
commission  of  guilt;    and  even  now  he  remains  here,  and  in 
silence  recognizes  his  own  crimes  as  I  enumerate  them. 

1  seem  to  myself  to  have  been  too  long  occupied  with  one  class 
of  crime.     I  am  aware,  O  judges,  that  I  have  to  encounter  the 
weariness  of  your  ears  and  eyes  at  such  a  repetition  of  similar 
cases;  I  will,  therefore,  pass  over  many  instances.     But  I  en- 
treat you,  O  judges,  in  the  name  of  the  immortal  gods,  in  the 
name  of  these  very  gods  of  whose  honor  and  worship  we  have 
been  so  long  speaking,  refresh  your  minds  so  as  to  attend  to 
what  I  am  about  to  mention,  while  I  bring  forward  and  detail  to 
you  that  crime  of  his  by  which  the  whole  province  was  roused, 
and  in  speaking  of  which  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  appear  to  go 
back  rather  far,  and  trace  the  earliest  recollections  of  the  re- 
ligious observances  in  question.     The  importance  of  the  affair 
will  not  allow  me  to  pass  over  the  atrocity  of  his  guilt  with 
brevity. 

It  is  an  old  opinion,  O  judges,  which  can  be  proved  from  the 
most  ancient  records  and  monuments  of  the  Greeks,  that  the 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES 


473 


whole  island  of  Sicily  was  consecrated  to  Ceres  and  Libera. 
Not  only  did  all  other  nations  think  so,  but  the  Sicilians  them- 
selves were  so  convinced  of  it,  that  it  appeared  a  deeply-rooted 
and  innate  belief  in  their  minds.  For  they  believe  that  these 
goddesses  were  born  in  these  districts,  and  that  corn  was  first 
discovered  in  this  land,  and  that  Libera  was  carried  off,  the  same 
goddess  whom  they  call  Proserpine,  from  a  grove  in  the  terri- 
tory of  Enna,  a  place  which,  because  it  is  situated  in  the  centre 
of  the  island,  is  called  the  navel  of  Sicily.  And  when  Ceres 
wished  to  seek  her  and  trace  her  out,  she  is  said  to  have  lit  her 
torches  at  those  flames  which  burst  out  at  the  summit  of  JEtna, 
and  carrying  these  torches  before  her,  to  have  wandered  over  the 
whole  earth.  Eijit  Enna,  where  those  things  which  I  am  speak- 
ing of  are  said  to  have  been  done,  is  in  a  high  and  lofty  situation, 
on  the  top  of  which  is  a  large  level  plain,  and  springs  of  water 
which  are  never  dry.  And  the  whole  of  the  plain  is  cut  off  and 
separated,  so  as  to  be  difficult  of  approach.  Around  it  are  many 
lakes  and  groves,  and  beautiful  flowers  at  every  season  of  the 
year ;  so  that  the  place  itself  appears  to  testify  to  that  abduction 
of  the  virgin  which  we  have  heard  of  from  our  boyhood.5  Near 
it  is  a  cave  turned  toward  the  north,  of  unfathomable  depth, 
where  they  say  that  Father  Pluto  suddenly  rose  out  of  the  earth 
in  his  chariot,  and  carried  the  virgin  off  from  that  spot,  and  that 
on  a  sudden,  at  no  great  distance  from  Syracuse,  he  went  down 
beneath  the  earth,  and  that  immediately  a  lake  sprang  up  in  that 
place;  and  there  to  this  day  the  Syracusans  celebrate  anni- 
versary festivals  with  a  most  numerous  assemblage  of  both  sexes. 
On  account  of  the  antiquity  of  this  belief,  because  in  those 
places  the  traces  and  almost  the  cradles  of  those  gods  are  found, 
the  worship  of  Ceres  of  Enna  prevails  to  a  wonderful  extent, 
both  in  private  and  in  public  over  all  Sicily.  In  truth,  many 
prodigies  often  attest  her  influence  and  divine  powers.  Her 
present  help  is  often  brought  to  many  in  critical  circumstances, 
so  that  this  island  appears  not  only  to  be  loved,  but  also  to  be 
watched  over  and  protected  by  her.  Nor  is  it  the  Sicilians  only, 
but  even  all  other  tribes  and  nations  greatly  worship  Ceres  of 
Enna.  In  truth,  if  initiation  into  those  sacred  mysteries  of  the 
Athenians  is  sought  for  with  the  greatest  avidity,  to  which  peo- 

B  We  have  the  same  advantage  as,  or  story  from  our  boyhood  told  far  more 
rather  greater  advantages  than  Cicero  beautifully  than  any  Sicilian  ever  imag- 
in  this  respect;  for  we  have  heard  the  ined  it.  See  Ovid.  Fasti,  iv.  419. 


474  CICERO 

pie  Ceres  is  said  to  have  come  in  that  long  wandering  of  hers, 
and  then  she  brought  them  corn,  how  much  greater  reverence 
ought  to  be  paid  to  her  by  those  people  among  whom  it  is  certain 
that  she  was  born,  and  first  discovered  corn.  And,  therefore,  in 
the  time  of  our  fathers,  at  a  most  disastrous  and  critical  time  to 
the  republic,  when,  after  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus,  there 
was  a  fear  that  great  dangers  were  portended  to  the  state  by 
various  prodigies,  in  the  consulship  of  Publius  Mucius  and 
Lucius  Calpurnius,  recourse  was  had  to  the  Sibylline  books,  in 
which  it  was  found  set  down,  "  that  the  most  ancient  Ceres  ought 
to  be  appeased."  Then,  priests  of  the  Roman  people,  selected 
from  the  most  honorable  college  of  decemvirs,  although  there 
was  in  our  own  city  a  most  beautiful  and  magnificent  temple  of 
Ceres,  nevertheless  went  as  far  as  Enna.  For  such  was  the 
authority  and  antiquity  of  the  reputation  for  holiness  of  that 
place,  that  when  they  went  thither,  they  seemed  to  be  going  not 
to  a  temple  of  Ceres,  but  to  Ceres  herself.  I  will  not  din  this 
into  your  ears  any  longer.  I  have  been  some  time  afraid  that 
my  speech  may  appear  unlike  the  usual  fashion  of  speeches  at 
trials,  unlike  the  daily  method  of  speaking.  This  I  say,  that 
this  very  Ceres,  the  most  ancient,  the  most  holy,  the  very  chief 
of  all  sacred  things  which  are  honored  by  every  people,  and  in 
every  nation,  was  carried  off  by  Caius  Verres  from  her  temple 
and  her  home.  Ye  who  have  been  to  Enna,  have  seen  a  statue 
of  Ceres  made  of  marble,  and  in  the  other  temple  a  statue  of 
Libera.  They  are  very  colossal  and  very  beautiful,  but  not  ex- 
ceedingly ancient.  There  was  one  of  brass,  of  moderate  size, 
but  extraordinary  workmanship,  with  the  torches  in  its  hands, 
very  ancient,  by  far  the  most  ancient  of  all  those  statues  which 
are  in  that  temple;  that  he  carried  off,  and  yet  he  was  not  con- 
tent with  that.  Before  the  temple  of  Ceres,  in  an  open  and  an 
uncovered  place,  there  are  two  statues,  one  of  Ceres,  the  other  of 
Triptolemus,  very  beautiful,  and  of  colossal  size.  Their  beauty 
was  their  danger,  but  their  size  their  safety;  because  the  taking 
of  them  down  and  carrying  them  off  appeared  very  difficult. 
But  in  the  right  hand  of  Ceres  there  stood  a  beautifully-wrought 
image  of  Victory;  and  this  he  had  wrenched  out  of  the  hand 
of  Ceres  and  carried  off. 

What  now  must  be  his  feelings  at  the  recollection  of  his 
crimes,  when  I,  at  the  mere  enumeration  of  them,  am  not  only 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  475 

roused  to  indignation  in  my  mind,  but  even  shudder  over  my 
whole  body?  For  thoughts  of  that  temple,  of  that  place,  of  that 
holy  religion  come  into  my  mind.  Everything  seems  present 
before  my  eyes — the  day  on  which,  when  I  had  arrived  at  Enna, 
the  priests  of  Ceres  came  to  meet  me  with  garlands  of  vervain, 
and  with  fillets;  the  concourse  of  citizens,  among  whom,  while 
I  was  addressing  them,  there  was  such  weeping  and  groaning 
that  the  most  bitter  grief  seemed  to  have  taken  possession  of  the 
whole.  They  did  not  complain  of  the  absolute  way  in  which  the 
tenths  were  levied,  nor  of  the  plunder  of  property,  nor  of  the 
iniquity  of  tribunals,  nor  of  that  man's  unhallowed  lusts,  nor  of 
his  violence,  nor  of  the  insults  by  which  they  had  been  oppressed 
and  overwhelmed.  It  was  the  divinity  of  Ceres,  the  antiquity  of 
their  sacred  observances,  the  holy  veneration  due  to  their  tem- 
ple, which  they  wished  should  have  atonement  made  to  them  by 
the  punishment  of  that  most  atrocious  and  audacious  man. 
They  said  that  they  could  endure  everything  else;  that  to  every- 
thing else  they  were  indifferent.  This  indignation  of  theirs  was 
so  great,  that  you  might  suppose  that  Verres,  like  another  king 
of  hell,  had  come  to  Enna  and  had  carried  off,  not  Proserpine, 
but  Ceres  herself.  And,  in  truth,  that  city  does  not  appear  to  be 
a  city,  but  a  shrine  of  Ceres.  The  people  of  Enna  think  that 
Ceres  dwells  among  them;  so  that  they  appear  to  me  not  to  be 
citizens  of  that  city,  but  to  be  all  priests,  to  be  all  ministers  and 
officers  of  Ceres.  Did  you  dare  to  take  away  out  of  Enna  the 
statue  of  Ceres?  Did  you  attempt  at  Enna  to  wrench  Victory 
out  of  the  hand  of  Ceres?  to  tear  one  goddess  from  the  other?— 
nothing  of  which  those  men  dared  to  violate,  or  even  to  touch, 
whose  qualities  were  all  more  akin  to  wickedness  than  to  religion. 
For  while  Publius  Popillius  and  Publius  Rupilius  were  consuls, 
slaves,  runaway  slaves,  and  barbarians,  and  enemies,  were  in 
possession  of  that  place;  but  yet  the  slaves  were  not  so  much 
slaves  to  their  own  masters,  as  you  are  to  your  passions;  nor 
did  the  runaways  flee  from  their  masters  as  far  as  you  flee  from 
all  laws  and  from  all  right ;  nor  were  the  barbarians  as  barbarous 
in  language  and  in  race  as  you  are  in  your  nature  and  your 
habits;  nor  were  the  enemies  as  much  enemies  to  men  as  you  are 
to  the  immortal  gods.  How,  then,  can  a  man  beg  for  any  mercy 
who  has  surpassed  slaves  in  baseness,  runaway  slaves  in  rash- 
ness, barbarians  in  wickedness,  and  enemies  in  inhumanity? 


476  CICERO 

You  heard  Theodorus  and  Numinius  and  Nicasio,  deputies 
from  Enna,  say,  in  the  name  of  their  state,  that  they  had  this 
commission  from  their  fellow-citizens,  to  go  to  Verres,  and  to  de- 
mand from  him  the  restoration  of  the  statues  of  Ceres  and  of 
Victory.  And  if  they  obtained  it,  then  they  were  to  adhere  to 
the  ancient  customs  of  the  state  of  Enna,  not  to  give  any  public 
testimony  against  him,  although  he  had  oppressed  Sicily,  since 
these  were  the  principles  which  they  had  received  from  their  an- 
cestors. But  if  he  did  not  restore  them,  then  they  were  to  go 
before  the  tribunal,  to  inform  the  judges  of  the  injuries  they  had 
received,  but,  far  above  all  things,  to  complain  of  the  insults  to 
their  religion.  And,  in  the  name  of  the  immortal  gods,  I  entreat 
you,  O  judges,  do  not  you  despise,  do  not  you  scorn  or  think 
lightly  of  their  complaints.  The  injuries  done  to  our  allies  are 
the  present  question;  the  authority  of  the  laws  is  at  stake;  the 
reputation  and  the  honesty  of  our  courts  of  justice  is  at  stake. 
And  though  all  these  are  great  considerations,  yet  this  is  the 
greatest  of  all — the  whole  province  is  so  imbued  with  religious 
feeling,  such  a  superstitious  dread  arising  out  of  that  man's  con- 
duct has  seized  upon  the  minds  of  all  the  Sicilians,  that  whatever 
public  or  private  misfortunes  happen,  appear  to  befall  them  be- 
cause of  that  man's  wickedness.  You  have  heard  the  Centuri- 
pans,  the  Agyrians,  the  Catenans,  the  Herbitans,  the  Ennans, 
and  many  other  deputies  say,  in  the  name  of  their  states,  how 
great  was  the  solitude  in  their  districts,  how  great  the  devasta- 
tion, how  universal  the  flight  of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil;  how 
deserted,  how  uncultivated,  how  desolate  every  place  was.  And 
although  there  are  many  and  various  injuries  done  by  that  man 
to  which  these  things  are  owing,  still  this  one  cause,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Sicilians,  is  the  most  weighty  of  all ;  for,  because  of 
the  insults  offered  to  Ceres,  they  believe  that  all  the  crops  and 
gifts  of  Ceres  have  perished  in  these  districts.  Bring  remedies, 
O  judges,  to  the  insulted  religion  of  the  allies;  preserve  your 
own,  for  this  is  not  a  foreign  religion,  nor  one  with  which  you 
have  no  concern.  But  even  if  it  were,  if  you  were  unwilling  to 
adopt  it  yourselves,  still  you  ought  to  be  willing  to  inflict  heavy 
punishment  on  the  man  who  violated  it.  But  now  that  the  com- 
mon religion  of  all  nations  is  attacked  in  this  way,  now  that  these 
sacred  observances  are  violated  which  our  ancestors  adopted  and 
imported  from  foreign  countries,  and  have  honored  ever  since — 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  477 

sacred  observances,  which  they  called  Greek  observances,  as  in 
truth  they  were — even  if  we  were  to  wish  to  be  indifferent  and 
cold  about  these  matters,  how  could  we  be  so? 

I  will  mention  the  sacking  of  one  city,  also,  and  that  the  most 
beautiful  and  highly  decorated  of  all,  the  city  of  Syracuse.  And 
I  will  produce  my  proofs  of  that,  O  judges,  in  order  at  length  to 
conclude  and  bring  to  an  end  the  whole  history  of  offences  of 
this  sort.  There  is  scarcely  any  one  of  you  who  has  not  often 
heard  how  Syracuse  was  taken  by  Marcus  Marcellus,  and  who 
has  not  sometimes  also  read  the  account  in  our  annals.  Com- 
pare this  peace  with  that  war;  the  visit  of  this  praetor  with  the 
victory  of  that  general ;  the  debauched  retinue  of  the  one  with 
the  invincible  army  of  the  other;  the  lust  of  Verres  with  the 
continence  of  Marcellus;  and  you  will  say  that  Syracuse  was 
built  by  the  man  who  took  it;  was  taken  by  the  man  who  re- 
ceived it  well  established  and  flourishing.  And  for  the  present 
I  omit  those  things  which  will  be  mentioned,  and  have  been 
already  mentioned  by  me  in  an  irregular  manner  in  different 
parts  of  my  speech — that  the  market-place  of  the  Syracusans, 
which  at  the  entrance  of  Marcellus  was  preserved  unpolluted  by 
slaughter,  on  the  arrival  of  Verres  overflowed  with  the  blood  of 
innocent  Sicilians;  that  the  harbor  of  the  Syracusans,  which  at 
that  time  was  shut  against  both  our  fleets  and  those  of  the  Car- 
thaginians, was,  while  Verres  was  praetor,  open  to  Cilician  pi- 
rates, or  even  to  a  single  piratical  galley.  I  say  nothing  of  the 
violence  offered  to  people  of  noble  birth,  of  the  ravishment  of 
matrons,  atrocities  which  then,  when  the  city  was  taken,  were  not 
committed,  neither  through  the  hatred  of  enemies,  nor  through 
military  license,  nor  through  the  customs  of  war  or  the  rights  of 
victory.  I  pass  over,  I  say,  all  these  things  which  were  done  by 
that  man  for  three  whole  years.  Listen  rather  to  acts  which  are 
connected  with  those  matters  of  which  I  have  hitherto  been 
speaking.  You  have  often  heard  that  the  city  of  Syracuse  is  the 
greatest  of  the  Greek  cities,  and  the  most  beautiful  of  all.  It  is 
so,  O  judges,  as  it  is  said  to  be;  for  it  is  so  by  its  situation,  which 
is  strongly  fortified,  and  which  is  on  every  side  by  which. you 
can  approach  it,  whether  by  sea  or  land,  very  beautiful  to  behold. 
And  it  has  harbors  almost  enclosed  within  the  walls,  and  in  the 
sight  of  the  whole  city;  harbors  which  have  different  entrances, 
but  which  meet  together,  and  are  connected  at  the  other  end. 


478  CICERO 

By  their  union  a  part  of  the  town,  which  is  called  the  island,  be- 
ing separated  from  the  rest  by  a  narrow  arm  of  the  sea,  is  again 
joined  to  and  connected  with  the  other  by  a  bridge. 

That  city  is  so  great  that  it  may  be  said  to  consist  of  four  cities 
of  the  largest  size;  one  of  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  that  "Island," 
which,  surrounded  by  two  harbors,  projects  out  toward  the 
mouth  and  entrance  of  each.  In  it  there  is  a  palace  which  did 
belong  to  king  Hiero,  which  our  praetors  are  in  the  habit  of 
using;  in  it  are  many  sacred  buildings,  but  two,  which  have  a 
great  pre-eminence  over  all  the  others,  one  a  temple  of  Diana, 
and  the  other  one,  which  before  the  arrival  of  that  man  was  the 
most  ornamented  of  all,  sacred  to  Minerva.  At  the  end  of  this 
island  is  a  fountain  of  sweet  water,  the  name  of  which  is  Are- 
thusa,  of  incredible  size,  very  full  of  fish,  which  would  be  entirely 
overwhelmed  by  the  waves  of  the  sea,  if  it  were  not  protected 
from  the  sea  by  a  rampart  and  dam  of  stone.  There  is  also  an- 
other city  at  Syracuse,  the  name  of  which  is  Achradina,  in  which 
there  is  a  very  large  forum,  most  beautiful  porticoes,  a  highly 
decorated  town-hall,  a  most  spacious  senate-house,  and  a  superb 
temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius;  and  the  other  districts  of  the  city 
are  joined  together  by  one  broad  unbroken  street,  and  divided 
by  many  cross-streets,  and  by  private  houses.  There  is  a  third 
city,  which,  because  in  that  district  there  is  an  ancient  temple  of 
Fortune,  is  called  Tyche,  in  which  there  is  a  spacious  gymna- 
sium, and  many  sacred  buildings,  and  that  district  is  the  most 
frequented  and  the  most  populous.  There  is  also  a  fourth  city, 
which,  because  it  is  the  last  built,  is  called  Neapolis,6  in  the 
highest  part  of  which  there  is  a  very  large  theatre,  and,  besides 
that,  there  are  two  temples  of  great  beauty,  one  of  Ceres,  the 
other  of  Libera,  and  a  statue  of  Apollo,  which  is  called  Temeni- 
tes,  very  beautiful  and  of  colossal  size;  which,  if  he  could  have 
moved  them,  he  would  not  have  hesitated  to  carry  off. 

Now  I  will  return  to  Marcellus,  that  I  may  not  appear  to  have 
entered  into  this  statement  without  any  reason.  He,  when  with 
his  powerful  army  he  had  taken  this  splendid  city,  did  not  think 
it  for  the  credit  of  the  Roman  people  to  destroy  and  extinguish 
this  splendor,  especially  as  no  danger  could  possibly  arise  from 

•  Neapolis  meaning  "  new  city,"  or  as  this  passage  the  description  of  Syracuse 

we  might  say,  Newtown,  from  the  Greek  given   by   Thucydides   in   his   sixth   and 

words  Ne'a  iroAi?,  as  Tyche  is  the   Greek  seventh  books, 
name  of   Fortune —  -fvxv  Compare  with 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        4?9 

it,  and  therefore  he  spared  all  the  buildings,  public  as  well  as 
private,  sacred  as  well  as  ordinary,  as  if  he  had  come  with  his 
army  for  the  purpose  of  defending  them,  not  of  taking  them  by 
storm.  With  respect  to  the  decorations  of  the  city,  he  had  a 
regard  to  his  own  victory,  and  a  regard  to  humanity ;  he  thought 
it  was  due  to  his  victory  to  transport  many  things  to  Rome 
which  might  be  an  ornament  to  this  city,  and  due  to  humanity 
not  utterly  to  strip  the  city,  especially  as  it  was  one  which  he  was 
anxious  to  preserve.  In  this  division  of  the  ornaments,  the 
victory  of  Marcellus  did  not  covet  more  for  the  Roman  people 
than  his  humanity  reserved  to  the  Syracusans.  The  things 
which  were  transported  to  Rome  we  see  before  the  temples  of 
Honor  and  of  Virtue,  and  also  in  other  places.  He  put  nothing 
in  his  own  house,  nothing  in  his  gardens,  nothing  in  his  suburban 
villa;  he  thought  that  his  house  could  only  be  an  ornament  to 
the  city  if  he  abstained  from  carrying  the  ornaments  which  be- 
longed to  the  city  to  his  own  house.  But  he  left  many  things  of 
extraordinary  beauty  at  Syracuse;  he  violated  not  the  respect 
due  to  any  god;  he  laid  hands  on  none.  Compare  Verres  with 
him;  not  to  compare  the  man  with  the  man — no  such  injury 
must  be  done  to  such  a  man  as  that,  dead  though  he  be;  but  to 
compare  a  state  of  peace  with  one  of  war,  a  state  of  law  and 
order,  and  regular  jurisdiction,  with  one  of  violence  and  martial 
law,  and  the  supremacy  of  arms;  to  compare  the  arrival  and 
retinue  of  the  one  with  the  victory  and  army  of  the  other. 

There  is  a  temple  of  Minerva  in  the  island,  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken,  which  Marcellus  did  not  touch,  which  he  left 
full  of  its  treasures  and  ornaments,  but  which  was  so  stripped 
and  plundered  by  Verres,  that  it  seems  to  have  been  in  the  hands, 
not  of  an  enemy — for  enemies,  even  in  war,  respect  the  rights  of 
religion,  and  the  customs  of  the  country — but  of  some  barbarian 
pirates.  There  was  a  cavalry  battle  of  their  king  Agathocles, 
exquisitely  painted  in  a  series  of  pictures,  and  with  these  pictures 
the  inside  walls  of  the  temple  were  covered.  Nothing  could  be 
more  noble  than  those  paintings;  there  was  nothing  at  Syracuse 
that  was  thought  more  worthy  going  to  see.  These  pictures, 
Marcus  Marcellus,  though  by  that  victory  of  his  he  had  divested 
everything  of  its  sacred  inviolability  of  character,  still,  out  of  re- 
spect for  religion,  never  touched;  Verres,  though,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  long  peace,  and  the  loyalty  of  the  Syracusan  peo- 


480  CICERO 

pie,  he  had  received  them  as  sacred  and  under  the  protection  of 
religion,  took  away  all  those  pictures,  and  left  naked  and  un- 
sightly those  walls  whose  decorations  had  remained  inviolate 
for  so  many  ages,  and  had  escaped  so  many  wars:  Marcellus, 
who  had  vowed  that  if  he  took  Syracuse  he  would  erect  two  tem- 
ples at  Rome,  was  unwilling  to  adorn  the  temple  which  he  was 
going  to  build  with  these  treasures  which  were  his  by  right  of 
capture;  Verres,  who  was  bound  by  no  vows  to  Honor  or 
Virtue,  as  Marcellus  was,  but  only  to  Venus  and  to  Cupid,  at- 
tempted to  plunder  the  temple  of  Minerva.  The  one  was  un- 
willing to  adorn  gods  in  the  spoil  taken  from  gods,  the  other 
transferred  the  decorations  of  the  virgin  Minerva  to  the  house  of 
a  prostitute.  Besides  this,  he  took  away  out  of  the  same  temple 
twenty-seven  more  pictures  beautifully  painted;  among  which 
were  likenesses  of  the  kings  and  tyrants  of  Sicily,  which  de- 
lighted one,  not  only  by  the  skill  of  the  painter,  but  also  by  re- 
minding us  of  the  men,  and  by  enabling  us  to  recognize  their 
persons.  And  see  now,  how  much  worse  a  tyrant  this  man 
proved  to  the  Syracusans  than  any  of  the  old  ones,  as  they,  cruel 
as  they  were,  still  adorned  the  temples  of  the  immortal  gods, 
while  this  man  took  away  the  monuments  and  ornaments  from 
the  gods. 

But  now  what  shall  I  say  of  the  folding-doors  of  that  temple? 
I  am  afraid  that  those  who  have  not  seen  these  things  may  think 
that  I  am  speaking  too  highly  of,  and  exaggerating  everything, 
though  no  one  ought  to  suspect  that  I  should  be  so  inconsiderate 
as  to  be  willing  that  so  many  men  of  the  highest  reputation,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  judges  in  this  cause,  who  have  been  at  Syra- 
cuse, and  who  have  seen  all  these  things  themselves,  should  be 
witnesses  to  my  rashness  and  falsehood.  I  am  able  to  prove  this 
distinctly,  O  judges,  that  no  more  magnificent  doors,  none  more 
beautifully  wrought  of  gold  and  ivory,  ever  existed  in  any  tem- 
ple. It  is  incredible  how  many  Greeks  have  left  written  ac- 
counts of  the  beauty  of  these  doors :  they,  perhaps,  may  admire 
and  extol  them  too  much ;  be  it  so,  still  it  is  more  honorable  for 
our  republic,  O  judges,  that  our  general,  in  a  time  of  war,  should 
have  left  those  things  which  appeared  to  them  so  beautiful,  than 
that  our  praetor  should  have  carried  them  off  in  a  time  of  peace. 
On  the  folding-doors  were  some  subjects  most  minutely  ex- 
ecuted in  ivory;  all  these  he  caused  to  be  taken  out;  he  tore  off 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  4gi 

and  took  away  a  very  fine  head  of  the  Gorgon  with  snakes  for 
hair;  and  he  showed,  too,  that  he  was  influenced  not  only  by 
admiration  for  the  workmanship,  but  by  a  desire  of  money  and 
gain;  for  he  did  not  hesitate  to  take  away  also  all  the  golden 
knobs  from  these  folding-doors,  which  were  numerous  and 
heavy;  and  it  was  not  the  workmanship  of  these,  but  the  weight 
which  pleased  him.  And  so  he  left  the  folding-doors  in  such, 
state,  that,  though  they  had  formerly  contributed  greatly  to  the 
ornament  of  the  temple,  they  now  seemed  to  have  been  made 
only  for  the  purpose  of  shutting  it  up.  Am  I  to  speak  also  of  the 
spears  made  of  grass?  for  I  saw  that  you  were  excited  at  the 
name  of  them  when  the  witnesses  mentioned  them.  They  were 
such  that  it  was  sufficient  to  have  seen  them  once,  as  there  was 
neither  any  manual  labor  in  them,  nor  any  beauty,  but  simply  an 
incredible  size,  which  it  would  be  quite  sufficient  even  to  hear  of, 
and  too  much  to  see  them  more  than  once.  Did  you  covet  even 
those? 

For  the  Sappho  which  was  taken  away  out  of  the  town-hall 
affords  you  so  reasonable  an  excuse,  that  it  may  seem  almost 
allowable  and  pardonable.  That  work  of  Silanion,  so  perfect, 
so  elegant,  so  elaborate  (I  will  not  say  what  private  man,  but), 
what  nation  could  be  so  worthy  to  possess,  as  the  most  elegant 
and  learned  Verres?  Certainly,  nothing  can  be  said  against  it. 
If  any  one  of  us,  who  are  not  as  happy,  who  cannot  be  as  refined 
as  that  man,  should  wish  to  behold  anything  of  the  sort,  let  him 
go  to  the  temple  of  Good  Fortune,  to  the  monument  of  Catulus, 
to  the  portico  of  Metellus;  let  him  take  pains  to  get  admittance 
into  the  Tusculan  villa  of  any  one  of  those  men;  let  him  see  the 
forum  when  decorated,  if  Verres  is  ever  so  kind  as  to  lend  any  of 
his  treasures  to  the  aediles.  Shall  Verres  have  all  these  things  at 
home?  shall  Verres  have  his  house  full  of,  his  villas  crammed 
with,  the  ornaments  of  temples  and  cities?  Will  you  still,  O 
judges,  bear  with  the  hobby,  as  he  calls  it,  and  pleasures  of  this 
vile  artisan?  a  man  who  was  born  in  such  a  rank,  educated  in 
such  a  way,  and  who  is  so  formed,  both  in  mind  and  body,  that 
he  appears  a  much  fitter  person  to  take  down  statues  than  to 
appropriate  them.  And  how  great  a  regret  this  Sappho  which 
he  carried  off  left  behind  her,  can  scarcely  be  told;  for  in  the  first 
place  it  was  admirably  made,  and,  besides,  it  had  a  very  noble 
Greek  epigram  engraved  upon  the  pedestal ;  and  would  not  that 
31 


482  CICERO 

learned  man,  that  Grecian,  who  is  such  an  acute  judge  of  these 
matters,  who  is  the  only  man  who  understands  them,  if  he  had 
understood  one  letter  of  Greek,  have  taken  that  away  too?  for 
now,  because  it  is  engraved  on  an  empty  pedestal,  it  both  de- 
clares what  was  once  on  the  pedestal,  and  proves  that  it  has  been 
taken  away.  What  shall  I  say  more?  Did  you  not  take  away 
the  statue  of  Paean  from  out  of  the  temple  of  yEsculapius,  beauti- 
fully made,  sacred,  and  holy  as  it  was?  a  statue  which  all  men 
went  to  see  for  its  beauty,  and  worshipped  for  its  sacred  char- 
acter. What  more?  was  not  the  statue  of  Aristaeus  openly  taken 
away  by  your  command  out  of  the  temple  of  Bacchus?  What 
more?  did  you  not  take  away  out  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  that 
most  holy  statue  of  Jupiter  Imperator,  which  the  Greeks  call 
Ovpios,  most  beautifully  made?  What  next?  did  you  hesitate 
to  take  away  out  of  the  temple  of  Libera,  that  most  exquisite  bust 
of  Parian  marble,  which  we  used  to  go  to  see?  And  that  Paean 
used  to  be  worshipped  among  that  people  together  with  ^scu- 
lapius,  with  anniversary  sacrifices.  Aristaeus,  who  being,  as  the 
Greeks  report,  the  son  of  Bacchus,  is  said  to  have  been  the  in- 
ventor of  oil,  was  consecrated  among  them  together  with  his 
father  Bacchus,  in  the  same  temple. 

But  how  great  do  you  suppose  was  the  honor  paid  to  Jupiter 
Imperator  in  his  own  temple?  You  may  collect  it  from  this 
consideration,  if  you  recollect  how  great  was  the  religious  rever- 
ence attached  to  that  statue  of  the  same  appearance  and  form 
which  Flaminius  brought  out  of  Macedonia,  and  placed  in  the 
Capitol.  In  truth,  there  were  said  to  be  in  the  whole  world 
three  statues  of  Jupiter  Imperator,  of  the  same  class,  all  beauti- 
fully made:  one  was  that  one  from  Macedonia,  which  we  have 
seen  in  the  Capitol;  a  second  was  the  one  at  the  narrow  straits, 
which  are  the  mouth  of  the  Euxine  Sea;  the  third  was  that 
which  was  at  Syracuse,  till  Verres  came  as  praetor.  Flaminius 
removed  the  first  from  its  habitation,  but  only  to  place  it  in  the 
Capitol,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  house  of  Jupiter  upon  earth ;  but  as 
to  the  one  that  is  at  the  entrance  of  the  Euxine,  that,  though  so 
many  wars  have  proceeded  from  he  shores  of  that  sea,  and 
though  so  many  have  been  poured  into  Pontus,  has  still  re- 
mained inviolate  and  untouched  to  this  day.  This  third  one, 
which  was  at  Syracuse,  which  Marcus  Marcellus,  when  in  arms 
and  victorious,  had  seen,  which  he  had  spared  to  the  religion  of 


THE  PROSECUTION   OF  VERRES  483 

the  place,  which  both  the  citzens  of,  and  settlers  in  Syracuse  were 
used  to  worship,  and  strangers  not  only  visited,  but  often  vene- 
rated, Caius  Verres  took  away  from  the  temple  of  Jupiter.  To 
return  again  to  Marcellus.  Judge  of  the  case,  O  judges,  in  this 
way;  think  that  more  gods  were  lost  to  the  Syracusans  owing 
to  the  arrival  of  Verres,  than  even  were  owing  to  the  victory  of 
Marcellus.  In  truth,  he  is  said  to  have  sought  diligently  for  the 
great  Archimedes,  a  man  of  the  highest  genius  and  skill,  and  to 
have  been  greatly  concerned  when  he  heard  that  he  had  been 
killed;  but  that  other  man  sought  for  everything  which  he  did 
seek  for,  not  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  it,  but  of  carrying  it 
away. 

At  present,  then,  all  those  things  which  might  appear  more 
insignificant,  I  will  on  that  account  pass  over — how  he  took 
away  Delphic  tables  made  of  marble,  beautiful  goblets  of 
brass,  an  immense  number  of  Corinthian  vases,  out  of  every 
sacred  temple  at  Syracuse ;  and  therefore,  O  judges,  those 
men  who  are  accustomed  to  take  strangers  about  to  all  those 
things  which  are  worth  going  to  see,  and  to  show  them  every 
separate  thing,  whom  they  call  mystagogi  (or  cicerones),  now 
have  their  description  of  things  reversed ;  for  as  they  formerly 
used  to  show  what  there  was  in  every  place,  so  now  they  show 
what  has  been  taken  from  every  place. 

What  do  you  think,  then?  Do  you  think  that  those  men 
are  affected  \vith  but  a  moderate  indignation?  Not  so,  O 
judges:  in  the  first  place,  because  all  men  are  influenced  by 
religious  feeling,  and  think  that  their  paternal  gods,  whom 
they  have  received  from  their  ancestors,  are  to  be  carefully 
worshipped  and  retained  by  themselves ;  and  secondly,  because 
this  sort  of  ornament,  these  works  and  specimens  of  art,  these 
statues  and  paintings,  delight  men  of  Greek  extraction  to  an 
excessive  degree ;  therefore  by  their  complaints  we  can  under- 
stand that  these  things  appear  most  bitter  to  those  men,  which 
perhaps  may  seem  trifling  and  contemptible  to  us.  Believe 
me,  O  judges,  although  I  am  aware  to  a  certainty  that  you 
yourselves  hear  the  same  things ;  that  though  both  our  allies 
and  foreign  nations  have  during  these  past  years  sustained 
many  calamities  and  injuries,  yet  men  of  Greek  extraction 
have  not  been,  and  are'  not,  more  indignant  at  any  than  at 
this  ruthless  plundering  of  their  temples  and  altars.  Although 


484  CICERO 

that  man  may  say  that  he  bought  these  things,  as  he  is  accus- 
tomed to  say,  yet,  believe  me  in  this,  O  judges,  no  city  in  all 
Asia  or  in  all  Greece  has  ever  sold  one  statue,  one  picture,  or 
one  decoration  of  the  city,  of  its  own  free  will  to  anybody. 
Unless,  perchance,  you  suppose  that,  after  strict  judicial  de- 
cisions had  ceased  to  take  place  at  Rome,  the  Greeks  then  be- 
gan to  sell  these  things,  which  they  not  only  did  not  sell  when 
there  were  courts  of  justice  open,  but  which  they  even  used  to 
buy  up;  or  unless  you  think  that  Lucius  Crassus,  Quintus 
Scsevola,  Caius  Claudius,  most  powerful  men,  whose  most 
splendid  aedileships  we  have  seen,  had  no  dealings  in  those 
sort  of  matters  with  the  Greeks,  but  that  those  men  had  such 
dealings  who  became  aediles  after  the  destruction  of  the  courts 
of  justice. 

Know  also  that  that  false  pretence  of  purchase  was  more 
bitter  to  the  cities  than  if  anyone  were  privily  to  filch  things, 
or  boldly  to  steal  them  and  carry  them  off.  For  they  think 
it  the  most  excessive  baseness,  that  it  should  be  entered  on 
the  public  records  that  the  city  was  induced  by  a  price,  and  by 
a  small  price  too,  to  sell  and  alienate  those  things  which  it 
had  received  from  men  of  old.  In  truth,  the  Greeks  delight 
to  a  marvellous  degree  in  those  things,  which  we  despise. 
And  therefore  our  ancestors  willingly  allowed  those  things  to 
remain  in  numbers  among  the  allies,  in  order  that  they  might 
be  as  splendid  and  as  flourishing  as  possible  under  our  domin- 
ion; and  among  those  nations  whom  they  rendered  taxable 
or  tributary,7  still  they  left  these  things,  in  order  that  they 
who  take  delight  in  those  things  which  to  us  seem  insignificant, 
might  have  them  as  pleasures  and  consolations  in  slavery. 
What  do  you  think  that  the  Rhegians,  who  now  are  Roman 
citizens,  would  take  to  allow  that  marble  Venus  to  be  taken 
from  them?  What  would  the  Tarentines  take  to  lose  the  Eu- 
ropa  sitting  on  the  Bull  ?  or  the  Satyr  which  they  have  in  the 
temple  of  Vesta?  or  their  other  monuments?  What  would 
the  Thespians  take  to  lose  the  statue  of  Cupid,  the  only  object 
for  which  anyone  ever  goes  to  see  Thespise?  What  would 
the  men  of  Cnidos  take  for  their  marble  Venus  ?  or  the  Coans 

7  The   Latin   is   "  quos   vectigales   aut  a  fixed  sum  as  tribute;  vectigales,  those 

stipendiarius     fuerant."  —  "  Stipendiarii  who  pay  in  proportion  to  their  property 

and   vectigales   are   thus   distinguished:  or     income.   —Riddle's     Dictionary,     v. 

Stipendiarii  are  those  who  pay  annually  Stipendiarius. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES  485 

for  their  picture  of  her?  or  the  Ephesians  for  Alexander? 
the  men  of  Cyzicus  for  their  Ajax  or  Medea?  What  would 
the  Rhodians  take  for  lalysus  ?  the  Athenians  for  their  marble 
Bacchus,  or  their  picture  of  Paralus,  or  their  brazen  Heifer,  the 
work  of  Myron  ?  It  would  be  a  long  business  and  an  unneces- 
sary one,  to  mention  what  is  worth  going  to  see  among  all  the 
different  nations  in  all  Asia  and  Greece ;  but  that  is  the  reason 
why  I  am  enumerating  these  things,  because  I  wish  you  to 
consider  that  an  incredible  indignation  must  be  the  feeling  of 
those  men  from  whose  cities  these  things  are  carried  away. 

And  to  say  nothing  of  other  nations,  judge  of  the  Syra- 
cusans  themselves.  For  when  I  went  to  Syracuse,  I  originally 
believed  what  I  had  heard  at  Rome  from  that  man's  friends, 
that  the  city  of  Syracuse,  on  account  of  the  inheritance  of 
Heraclius,  was  no  less  friendly  to  him  than  the  city  of  the 
Mamertines,  because  of  their  participation  in  all  his  booty 
and  robberies.  And  at  the  same  time  I  was  afraid  that,  owing 
to  the  influence  of  the  high-born  and  beautiful  women  at  whose 
will  he  had  directed  all  the  measures  of  his  praetorship  for  three 
years,  and  of  the  men  to  whom  they  were  married,  I  should  be 
opposed  not  only  by  an  excessive  lenity,  but  even  by  a  feeling 
of  liberality  toward  that  man,  if  I  were  to  seek  for  any  evi- 
dence out  of  the  public  records  of  the  Syracusans.  Therefore 
when  at  Syracuse  I  was  chiefly  with  Roman  citizens ;  I  copied 
out  their  papers ;  I  inquired  into  their  injuries.  As  I  was  a 
long  time  occupied  by  that  business,  in  order  to  rest  a  little 
and  to  give  my  mind  a  respite  from  care,  I  returned  to  those 
fine  documents  of  Carpinatius;  in  which,  in  company  with 
some  of  the  most  honorable  knights  of  the  body  of  Roman 
settlers,  I  unravelled  the  case  of  those  Verrutii,  whom  I  have 
mentioned  before,  but  I  expected  no  aid  at  all,  either  publicly 
or  privately,  from  the  Syracusans,  nor  had  I  any  idea  of  ask- 
ing for  any.  While  I  was  doing  this,  on  a  sudden  Heraclius 
came  to  me,  who  was  in  office  at  Syracuse,  a  man  of  high  birth, 
who  had  been  priest  of  Jupiter,  which  is  the  highest  honor 
among  the  Syracusans ;  he  requests  of  me  and  of  my  brother, 
if  we  have  no  objection,  to  go  to  their  Senate ;  that  they  were 
at  that  moment  assembled  in  full  numbers  in  the  senate-house, 
and  he  said  that  he  made  this  request  to  us  to  attend  by  com- 
mand of  the  Senate.  At  first  we  were  in  doubt  what  to  do; 


486  CICERO 

but  afterward  it  soon  occurred  to  us  that  we  ought  not  to 
shun  that  assembly  or  that  place. 

Therefore  we  came  to  the  senate-house;  they  all  rise  at 
our  entry  to  do  us  honor.  We  sat  down  at  the  request  of  the 
magistrates.  Diodorus  the  son  of  Timarchides,  who  was  the 
first  man  in  that  body  both  in  influence  and  in  age,  and  also 
as  it  seemed  to  me  in  experience  and  knowledge  of  business, 
began  to  speak;  and  the  first  sentence  of  his  speech  was  to 
this  effect,  That  the  Senate  and  people  of  Syracuse  were 
grieved  and  indignant,  that,  though  in  all  the  other  cities  of 
Sicily  I  had  informed  the  Senate  and  people  of  what  I  pro- 
posed* for  their  advantage  or  for  their  safety,  and  though  I  had 
received  from  them  all  commissions,  deputies,  letters  and  evi- 
dence, yet  in  that  city  I  had  done  nothing  of  that  sort.  I  an- 
swered that  deputies  from  the  Syracusans  had  not  been  present 
at  Rome  in  that  assembly  of  the  Sicilians  when  my  assistance 
was  entreated  by  the  common  resolution  of  all  the  deputations, 
and  when  the  cause  of  the  whole  of  Sicily  was  intrusted  to 
me ;  and  that  I  could  not  ask  that  any  decree  should  be  passed 
against  Caius  Verres  in  that  senate-house  in  which  I  saw 
a  gilt  statue  of  Caius  Verres.  And  after  I  said  that,  such  a 
groaning  ensued  at  the  sight  and  mention  of  the  statue,  that 
it  appeared  to  have  been  placed  in  the  senate-house  as  a  mon- 
ument of  his  wickedness  and  not  of  his  services.  Then  every- 
one for  himself,  as  fast  as  each  could  manage  to  speak,  began 
to  give  me  information  of  those  things  which  I  have  just  now 
mentioned;  to  tell  me  that  the  city  was  plundered — the  tem- 
ples stripped  of  their  treasures — that  of  the  inheritance  of 
Heraclius,  which  he  had  adjudged  to  the  men  of  the  palaestra, 
he  had  taken  by  far  the  greatest  share  himself;  and  indeed, 
that  they  could  not  expect  that  he  should  care  for  the  men  of 
the  palaestra,  when  he  had  taken  away  even  the  god  who  was 
the  inventor  of  oil ;  that  that  statue  had  neither  been  made  at 
the  public  expense,  nor  erected  by  public  authority,  but  that 
those  men  who  had  been  the  sharers  in  the  plunder  of  the  in- 
heritance of  Heraclius,  had  had  it  made  and  placed  where  it 
was ;  and  that  those  same  men  had  been  the  deputies  at  Rome, 
who  had  been  his  assistants  in  dishonesty,  his  partners  in  his 
thefts,  and  the  witnesses  of  his  debaucheries;  and  that  there- 
fore I  ought  the  less  to  wonder  if  they  were  wanting  to  the 
unanimity  of  the  deputies  and  to  the  safety  of  Sicily. 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES  487 

When  I  perceived  that  their  indignation  at  that  man's  in- 
juries was  not  only  not  less,  but  almost  greater  than  that  of 
the  rest  of  the  Sicilians,  then  I  explained  my  own  intentions 
to  them,  and  my  whole  plan  and  system  with  reference  to  the 
whole  of  the  business  which  I  had  undertaken;  then  I  ex- 
horted them  not  to  be  wanting  to  the  common  cause  and  the 
common  safety,  and  to  rescind  that  panegyric  which  they  had 
voted  a  few  days  before,  being  compelled,  as  they  said,  by 
violence  and  fear.  Accordingly,  O  judges,  the  Syracusans, 
that  man's  clients  and  friends,  do  this.  First  of  all,  they  pro- 
duce to  me  the  public  documents  which  they  had  carefully 
stored  up  in  the  most  sacred  part  of  the  treasury ;  in  which 
they  show  me  that  everything,  which  I  have  said  had  been 
taken  away,  was  entered,  and  even  more  things  than  I  was 
able  to  mention.  And  they  were  entered  in  this  way. 
"  What  had  been  taken  out  of  the  temple  of  Minerva  .  .  . 
This,  .  .  .  and  that."  "  What  was  missing  out  of  the  tem- 
ple of  Jupiter."  "  What  was  missing  out  of  the  temple  of 
Bacchus."  As  each  individual  had  had  the  charge  of  protect- 
ing and  preserving  those  things,  so  it  was  entered ;  that  each, 
when  according  to  law  he  gave  in  his  accounts,  being  bound 
to  give  up  what  he  had  received,  had  begged  that  he  might  be 
pardoned  for  the  absence  of  these  things,  and  that  all  had  ac- 
cordingly been  released  from  liability  on  that  account,  and  that 
it  was  kept  secret;  all  which  documents  I  took  care  to  have 
sealed  up  with  the  public  seal  and  brought  away.  But  con- 
cerning the  public  panegyric  on  him  this  explanation  was 
given :  that  at  first,  when  the  letters  arrived  from  Verres  about 
the  panegyric,  a  little  while  before  my  arrival,  nothing  had 
been  decreed ;  and  after  that,  when  some  of  his  friends  urged 
them  that  it  ought  to  be  decreed,  thef  were  rejected  with  the 
greatest  outcry  and  the  bitterest  reproaches ;  but  when  I  was 
on  the  point  of  arriving,  then  he  who  at  that  time  was  the 
chief  governor  had  commanded  them  to  decree  it,  and  that  it 
had  been  decreed  in  such  a  manner  that  the  panegyric  did 
him  more  damage  than  it  could  have  done  him  good.  So  now, 
judges,  do  you  receive  the  truth  of  that  matter  from  me  just 
as  it  was  shown  to  me  by  them. 

It  is  a  custom  at  Syracuse,  that,  if  a  motion  on  any  sub- 
ject is  brought  before  the  Senate,  whoever  wishes,  gives  his 


488  CICERO 

opinion  on  it.  No  one  is  asked  by  name  for  his  sentiments ; 
nevertheless,  those  are  accustomed  to  speak  first  of  their  own 
accord,  and  naturally,  according  as  they  are  superior  in  honor 
or  in  age ;  and  that  precedence  is  yielded  to  them  by  the  rest ; 
but,  if  at  any  time  all  are  silent,  then  they  are  compelled  to 
speak  by  lot.  This  was  the  custom  when  the  motion  was 
made  respecting  the  panegyric  of  Verres.  On  which  subject 
at  first  great  numbers  speak,  in  order  to  delay  coming  to  any 
vote,  and  interpose  this  objection,  that  formerly,  when  they 
had  heard  that  there  was  a  prosecution  instituted  against  Sex- 
tus  Peducaeus,  who  had  deserved  admirably  well  of  that  city 
and  of  the  whole  province,  and  when,  in  return  for  his  numer- 
ous and  important  services,  they  wished  to  vote  a  panegyric 
on  him,  they  had  been  prohibited  from  doing  so  by  Caius  Ver- 
res ;  and  that  it  would  be  an  unjust  thing,  although  Peducaeus 
had  now  no  need  of  their  praise,  still  not  to  vote  that  which 
at  one  time  they  had  been  eager  to  vote,  before  decreeing  what 
they  would  only  decree  from  compulsion.  All  shout  in  assent, 
and  say  approvingly  that  that  is  what  ought  to  be  done.  So 
the  question  about  Peducseus  is  put  to  the  Senate.  Each  man 
gave  his  opinion  in  order,  according  as  he  had  precedence  in 
age  and  honor.  You  may  learn  this  from  the  resolution  it- 
self ;  for  the  opinions  delivered  by  the  chief  men  are  generally 
recorded.  Read — 

[The  list  of  speeches  made  on  the  subject  of  Sextus  Peducaeus  is  read.] 

It  says  who  were  the  chief  supporters  of  the  motion.  The 
vote  is  carried.  Then  the  question  about  Verres  is  put.  Tell 
me,  I  pray,  what  happened. 

[The  list  of  speeches  made  on  the  subject  of  Caius  Verres  .  .  .  .] 

Well  what  comes  next? 

[As  no  one  rose,  and  no  one  delivered  his  opinion  .  .  .  .] 

What  is  this? 

[They  proceed  by  lot] 

Why  was  this?  Was  no  one  a  willing  praiser  of  your  prae- 
torship,  or  a  willing  defender  of  you  from  danger,  especially 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        489 

when  by  being  so  he  might  have  gained  favor  with  the  prae- 
tor? No  one.  Those  very  men  who  used  to  feast  with  you, 
your  advisers  and  accomplices,  did  not  venture  to  utter  a  word. 
In  that  very  senate-house  in  which  a  statue  of  yourself  and 
a  naked  statue  of  your  son  were  standing,  was  there  no  one 
whom  even  your  naked  son  in  a  province  stripped  naked  could 
move  to  compassion?  Moreover  they  inform  me  also  of  this, 
that  they  had  passed  the  vote  of  panegyric  in  such  a  form  that 
all  men  might  see  that  it  was  not  a  panegyric,  but  rather  a 
satire,  to  remind  everyone  of  his  shameful  and  disastrous  prae- 
torship.  For  in  truth  it  was  drawn  up  in  these  words.  "  Be- 
cause he  had  scourged  no  one."  From  which  you  are  to  un- 
derstand that  he  had  caused  most  noble  and  innocent  men  to 
be  executed.  "  Because  he  had  administered  the  affairs  of  the 
province  with  vigilance,"  when  all  his  vigils  were  well  known 
to  have  been  devoted  to  debauchery  and  adultery;  moreover, 
there  was  this  clause  added,  which  the  defendant  could  never 
venture  to  produce,  and  the  accuser  would  never  cease  to 
dwell  upon ;  "  Because  Verres  had  kept  all  pirates  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  island  of  Sicily ; "  men  who  in  his  time  had 
entered  even  into  the  "  island  "  of  Syracuse.  And  after  I  had 
received  this  information  from  them,  I  departed  from  the  sen- 
ate-house with  my  brother,  in  order  that  they  might  decree 
what  they  chose. 

Immediately  they  pass  a  decree.  First,  "  That  my  brother 
Lucius  should  be  connected  with  the  city  by  ties  of  hospital- 
ity ; "  because  he  had  shown  the  same  good-will  to  the  Syra- 
cusans  that  I  had  always  felt  myself.  That  they  not  only 
wrote  at  that  time,  but  also  had  engraved  on  brazen  tablets 
and  presented  to  us.  Truly  very  fond  of  you  are  your  Syra- 
cusans  whom  you  are  always  talking  of,  who  think  it  quite  a 
sufficient  reason  for  forming  an  intimate  connection  with  your 
accuser,  that  he  is  going  to  be  your  accuser,  and  that  he  has 
come  among  them  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  inquiries 
against  you.  After  that,  a  decree  is  passed,  not  with  any  dif- 
ference of  opinion,  but  almost  unanimously,  "  That  the  pane- 
gyric which  had  been  decreed  to  Caius  Verres,  be  rescinded." 
But,  when  not  only  the  vote  had  been  come  to,  but  when  it 
had  even  been  drawn  up  in  due  form  and  entered  in  the  rec- 
ords, an  appeal  is  made  to  the  praetor.  But  who  makes  this 


490  CICERO 

appeal?  Any  magistrate?  No.  Any  senator?  Not  even 
that.  Any  Syracusan?  Far  from  it.  Who,  then,  appeals  to 
the  praetor  ?  The  man  who  had  been  Verres's  quaestor,  Caese- 
tius.  Oh,  the  ridiculous  business !  Oh,  the  deserted  man !  O 
man  despaired  of  and  abandoned  by  the  Sicilian  magistracy! 
Tn  order  to  prevent  the  Sicilians  passing  a  resolution  of  the 
Senate,  or  from  obtaining  their  rights  according  to  their  own 
customs  and  their  own  laws,  an  appeal  is  made  to  the  praetor, 
not  by  any  friend  of  his,  not  by  any  connection,  not,  in  short, 
by  any  Sicilian,  but  by  his  own  quaestor.  Who  saw  this? 
Who  heard  it?  That  just  and  wise  praetor  orders  the  Senate 
to  be  adjourned.  A  great  multitude  flocks  to  me.  First  of 
all,  the  senators  cry  out  that  their  rights  are  being  taken  away ; 
that  their  liberty  is  being  taken  away.  The  people  praise  the 
Senate  and  thank  them.  The  Roman  citizens  do  not  leave  me. 
And  on  that  day  I  had  no  harder  task,  than  with  all  my  ex- 
ertions to  prevent  violent  hands  being  laid  on  the  man  who 
made  that  appeal.  When  we  had  gone  before  the  praetor's 
tribunal,  he  deliberates,  forsooth,  diligently  and  carefully  what 
decision  he  shall  give;  for,  before  I  say  one  word,  he  rises 
from  his  seat,  and  departs.  And  so  we  departed  from  the  fo- 
rum when  it  was  now  nearly  evening. 

The  next  day,  the  first  thing  in  the  morning,  I  beg  of 
him  to  allow  the  Syracusans  to  give  me  a  copy  of  the  reso- 
lution which  they  had  passed  the  day  before.  But  he  refuses, 
and  says  that  it  is  a  great  shame  for  me  to  have  made  a  speech 
in  a  Greek  Senate ;  and  that,  as  for  my  having  spoken  in  the 
Greek  language  to  Greeks,  that  was  a  thing  which  could  not 
be  endured  at  all.  I  answered  the  man  as  I  could,  as  I  chose, 
and  as  I  ought.  Among  other  things,  I  recollect  that  I  said 
that  it  was  easy  to  be  seen  how  great  was  the  difference  be- 
tween him  and  the  great  Numidicus,  the  real  and  genuine  Me- 
tellus.  That  that  Metellus  had  refused  to  assist  with  his  pane- 
gyric Lucius  Lucullus,  his  sister's  husband,  with  whom  he 
was  on  the  very  best  terms,  but  that  he  was  procuring  pane- 
gyrics from  cities  for  a  man  totally  unconnected  with  himself, 
by  violence  and  compulsion.  But  when  I  understood  that  it 
was  many  recent  messengers,  and  many  letters,  not  of  intro- 
duction but  of  credit,  that  had  had  so  much  influence  over 
him,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Syracusans  themselves  I  make 


THE  PROSECUTION  OF  VERRES        491 

a  seizure  of  those  documents  in  which  the  resolutions  of  the 
Senate  were  recorded.  And  now  behold  a  fresh  confusion  and 
strife.  That,  however,  you  may  not  suppose  that  he  was  with- 
out any  friends  or  connections  at  Syracuse,  that  he  was 
entirely  desolate  and  forsaken,  a  man  of  the  name  of  Theomnas- 
tus,  a  man  ridiculously  crazy,  whom  the  Syracusans  call  The- 
oractus,8  attempted  to  detain  those  documents ;  a  man  in  such 
a  condition,  that  the  boys  follow  him,  and  that  everyone 
laughs  at  him  every  time  he  opens  his  mouth.  But  his  crazi- 
ness,  which  is  ridiculous  to  others,  was  then  in  truth  very 
troublesome  to  me.  For  while  he  was  foaming  at  the  mouth, 
his  eyes  glaring,  and  he  crying  out  as  loud  as  he  could  that 
I  was  attacking  him  with  violence,  we  came  together  before 
the  tribunal.  Then  I  began  to  beg  to  be  allowed  to  seal  up 
and  carry  away  the  records.  He  spoke  against  me;  he  de- 
nied that  there  had  been  any  regular  resolution  of  the  Senate 
passed,  since  an  appeal  had  been  made  to  the  praetor.  He 
said  that  a  copy  of  it  ought  not  to  be  given  to  me.  I  read 
the  act  that  I  was  to  be  allowed  all  documents  and  records. 
He,  like  a  crazy  man  as  he  was,  urged  that  our  laws  had 
nothing  to  do  with  him.  That  intelligent  praetor  decided  that 
he  did  not  choose,  as  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  had  no 
business  ever  to  be  ratified,  to  allow  me  to  take  a  copy  of  it 
to  Rome.  Not  to  make  a  long  story  of  it,  if  I  had  not  threat- 
ened the  man  vigorously,  if  I  had  not  read  to  him  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act  passed  in  this  case,  and  the  penalties  enacted 
by  it,  I  should  not  have  been  allowed  to  have  the  documents. 
But  that  crazy  fellow,  who  had  declaimed  against  me  most 
violently  on  behalf  of  Verres,  when  he  found  he  did  not  suc- 
ceed, in  order  I  suppose  to  recover  my  favor,  gives  me  a  book 
in  which  all  Verres's  Syracusan  thefts  were  set  down,  which 
I  had  already  been  informed  of  by,  and  had  a  list  of  from 
them. 

Now,  then,  let  the  Mamertines  praise  you,  who  are  the 
only  men  of  all  that  large  province  who  wish  you  to  get  off; 
but  let  them  praise  you  on  condition  that  Heius,  who  is 
the  chief  man  of  that  deputation,  is  present;  let  them  praise 
you  on  condition  that  they  are  here,  ready  to  reply  to  me  on 

8  Theoractus  seems  a  sort  of  nickname,        while  Theomnastus  is  derived  from  <*«&« 
to   indicate  his   insanity,   being  derived        andj*4*>'>w«",  to  remember, 
from  <*«&«,  God,  and  frfyw^i,  to  break; 


49*  CICERO 

those  points  concerning  which  they  are  questioned.  And  that 
they  may  not  be  taken  by  surprise  on  a  sudden,  this  is  what 
I  shall  ask  them:  Are  they  bound  to  furnish  a  ship  to  the 
Roman  people?  They  will  admit  it.  Have  they  supplied  it 
while  Verres  was  praetor?  They  will  say,  No.  Have  they 
built  an  enormous  transport  at  the  public  expense  which  they 
have  given  to  Verres  ?  They  will  not  be  able  to  deny  it.  Has 
Verres  taken  corn  from  them  to  send  to  the  Roman  people,  as 
his  predecessor  did?  They  will  say,  No.  What  soldiers  or 
sailors  have  they  furnished  during  those  three  years?  They 
will  say  they  furnished  none  at  all.  They  will  not  be  able  to 
deny  that  Messana  has  been  the  receiver  of  all  his  plunder  and 
all  his  robberies.  They  will  confess  that  an  immense  quantity 
of  things  were  exported  from  that  city ;  and  besides  that,  that 
this  large  vessel  given  to  him  by  the  Mamertines,  departed 
loaded  when  the  praetor  left  Sicily.  You  are  welcome,  then, 
to  that  panegyric  of  the  Mamertines.  As  for  the  city  of  Syra- 
cuse, we  see  that  that  feels  toward  you  as  it  has  been  treated 
by  you ;  and  among  them  that  infamous  Verrean  festival,  in- 
stituted by  you,  has  been  abolished.  In  truth,  it  was  a  most 
unseemly  thing  for  honors  such  as  belong  to  the  gods  to  be 
paid  to  the  man  who  had  carried  off  the  images  of  the  gods. 
In  truth,  that  conduct  of  the  Syracusans  would  be  deservedly 
reproached,  if,  when  they  had  struck  a  most  celebrated  and 
solemn  day  of  festival  games  out  of  their  annals,  because  on 
that  day  Syracuse  was  said  to  have  been  taken  by  Marcellus, 
they  should,  notwithstanding,  celebrate  a  day  of  festival  in  the 
name  of  Verres ;  though  he  had  plundered  the  Syracusans  of 
all  which  that  day  of  disaster  had  left  them.  But  observe  the 
shamelessness  and  arrogance  of  the  man,  O  judges,  who  not 
only  instituted  this  disgraceful  and  ridiculous  Verrean  festival 
out  of  the  money  of  Heraclius,  but  who  also  ordered  the  Mar- 
cellean  festival  to  be  abolished,  in  order  that  they  might  every 
year  offer  sacrifices  to  the  man  by  whose  means  they  had  lost 
the  sacred  festivals  which  they  had  ever  observed,  and  had  lost 
their  national  deities,  and  that  they  might  take  away  the  fes- 
tival days  in  honor  of  that  family  by  whose  means  they  had 
recovered  all  their  other  festivals. 


